In the 90s and 00s, the BJP emerged as a pole in the coalition era as Atal Bihari Vajpayee forged new partnerships in power. However, as prime minister, his own jugalbandi with LK Advani saw fault lines. These were years of a series of minority governments – a trend only reversed by Narendra Modi’s decisive victory in 2014.

Welcome to the third episode of Let’s Talk About: BJP, which takes us through NDA governments, disagreements within the BJP in the wake of the Gujarat riots, the UPA’s scam taint, the Anna Hazare-led anti-corruption protests, and the emergence of Modi.

With speakers such as Neerja Chaudhary, Nilanjan Mukhopadhyay, Vinay Sitapati, Subramanian Swamy, Yashwant Sinha and Arati Jerath, the episode also explores the shifts within the BJP from the coalition age to the Modi years.

Referring to Vajpayee’s statesman image, Vinay Sitapati says, “The previous visual image that most Indians had of Hindu nationalism, was of Hindu nationalists on top of the Babri Masjid with pickaxes and jeans and in saffron… But four years later, what Vajpayee was able to show was that this was the responsible moderate Hindu nationalism, which was able to make arguments, which was not involved in hyperbole, and if it doesn’t have the mandate, it is willing to responsibly quit and remain in the opposition.”

On the inexorable rise of Modi, Nilanjan Mukhopadhyay comments, “In any organisation, if the top leader is miles and miles ahead of others, then there can not be any infighting because there’s no way that anybody can challenge that top leader.”

Tune in.