Bharatiya Jana Sangh

The Bharatiya Jana Sangh (abbrv. BJS), commonly known as the Jan Sangh, was an Indian nationalist political party that existed from 1951 to 1977 and was the political arm of Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), a Hindu right-wing organisation. In 1977, it merged with several other left, centre and right parties opposed to rule of the Indian National Congress and formed the Janata Party. After the Janata Party split in 1980, it was re-formed as the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in 1980, which is one of India's largest political parties today.

Origins

The BJS was started by Syama Prasad Mookerjee on 21 October 1951 in Delhi in collaboration with the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) as a "nationalistic alternative" to the India Congress. After the death of Mookerjee, the RSS activists in the party edged out the career politicians and made it a political arm of the RSS and an integral part of the RSS family of organisations (Sangh Parivar).

The symbol of the party in Indian elections was an oil lamp and like the RSS, its ideology was centred on Hindutva. In the 1952 general elections to the Parliament of India, Bharatiya Jana Sangh won three seats, Mookerjee being one of the winning candidates. The BJS would often link up on issues and debates with the right-wing Swatantra Party of Chakravarti Rajagopalachari. Its strongest parliamentary performance came in the 1967 elections, when the Congress majority was its thinnest ever.

Balraj Madhok

Balraj Madhok (Hindi:बलराज मधोक) (b. 25 February 1920) was a president of the Bharatiya Jan Sangh (BJS) and a senior politician of India in 1960s. He was born at Skardu in the former princely state of Kashmir and Jammu (now in the Pakistani Northern Areas). He started his academic and political career in Jammu and Kashmir. He unified Hindus who were not in large numbers, to stand against the Pakistani forces and local separatists in 1948. He along with Prem Nath Dogra, formed the Praja Parishad Party in Kashmir in 1949. The party demanded complete unification of Jammu & Kashmir with India. Later he merged the Praja Parishad Party with BJS. He assisted Shyama Prasad Mukherjee in formation of the Bharatiya Jan Sangh in 1951, which in 1980 got transformed into Bharatiya Janta Party. He was the first secretary of the Bharatiya Jan Sangh. He scripted the first manifesto of the Party.

He was a Professor of History at the University of Delhi. He served as the President of the party for a year. He served as a member in the Consultative committee of Foreign Affairs, Lok Sabha. He was the President of Indo-Israeli Friendship Society (1967–1974) and Indo-Tibetan Society.

Anand Sharma

Anand Sharma (Hindi: आनंद शर्मा; born 5 January 1953) is the former Union Cabinet Minister in charge of Commerce and Industry and Textiles in the Government of India. Since June 2014, Sharma is the Deputy Leader of opposition in Rajya Sabha, the upper house of the Indian Parliament.

Early life and education.

Anand Sharma is the son of P. A. Sharma and Prabha Rani Sharma and was born in Shimla, Himachal Pradesh. He was educated at R.P.C.S.D.B. College, Shimla and Faculty of Law, Himachal Pradesh University, Shimla.

Career

Sharma was a prominent leader in the student and youth movement in India, a founder member of the Congress Party's students wing the NSUI. He was also a former President of the Youth Congress. Sharma asserts that the country needed investment in the manufacturing sector and the cost of credit must be brought down for this purpose. In February 2012, Sharma led a business delegation of more than 120 people to Pakistan for improving trade ties. During this visit, he discussed the revision of the existing visa bilateral agreement, signed in 1974, with his Pakistani counterpart Makhdoom Muhammad Ameen Faheem, to facilitate travel by bona fide businessmen from both the countries.

Syama Prasad Mukherjee

Shyama Prasad Mukherjee alternatively spelt as Syama Prasad Mookerjee (6 July 1901 – 23 June 1953) was an Indian politician, barrister and academician, who served as Minister for Industry and Supply in Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru's cabinet. After falling out with Nehru, Mukherjee quit the Indian National Congress and founded the right wing nationalist Bharatiya Jana Sangh (which would later evolve into BJP) in 1951.

Early life

Shyama Prasad Mukherjee was born in a Bengali family on 6 July 1901 in Calcutta (Kolkata). His father was Sir Ashutosh Mukherjee, a judge of the High Court of Judicature at Fort William, Bengal, who was also Vice-Chancellor of the University of Calcutta. His mother was Lady Jogamaya Devi Mukherjee. Eminent writer and Himalaya lover Umaprasad Mukhopadhyay was his younger brother.

Shyama Prasad grew up to be "an introvert, rather insular, a reflective person; also an emotional person", who needed someone else by his side to give him emotional support. He was seriously affected by the early death of his wife Sudha Devi and never remarried Mukherjee obtained his degrees from the University of Calcutta. He graduated in English securing the first position in first class in 1921 and also completed an MA in Bengali(on his father's advice) and stood first in 1923 and completed his BL in 1924. He became a fellow of the Senate in 1923. He enrolled as an advocate in Calcutta High Court in 1924 after his father had died. Subsequently he left for England in 1926 to study at Lincoln's Inn and became a Barrister-at-Law in 1927. At the age of 33, he became the youngest Vice-Chancellor of the University of Calcutta (1934), and held the office till 1938. During his term as Vice-Chancellor of the Calcutta University he invited Rabindranath Tagore to give Convocation Address in Bengali in 1937, for the first time in history.