Democracy BJP’s core value: PM

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, February 18

Asserting that democracy is his party’s “core value”, Prime Minister Narendra Modi today lauded that the BJP and its earlier avatar Jana Sangh had always been on the fore front of all the agitations in the interest of the country since Independence.

In a speech at a function here to inaugurate the new building of his party’s central office, the Prime Minister said because of the “core value”, the BJP takes along its allies successfully and has never wavered from its founding ideals, which is full of patriotism.

Modi said there were many leaders associated with the Congress during the struggle for freedom, but later parted ways to propagate their political values and founded new parties. The Jana Sangh was founded because after Independence a need was felt to have one or two more strong national parties, he added.

“After Independence, Bhartiya Jana Sangh and then the BJP led all agitations held in national interest in the country. And we are proud of it,” the PM told a gathering, which included party chief Amit Shah, a host of Union ministers and its office-bearers. He went on to add that exactly because of this the BJP is “dyed in the colour of patriotism” and is always willing to struggle and sacrifice for the cause of the nation.

At a time when some of his allies, including the TDP, have spoken about their differences with the BJP, Modi also recalled the work of the Atal Bihari Vajpayee-led NDA government.

On the occasion, Modi also said different views of different political parties made the bouquet of Indian democracy beautiful but a lot needed to be done about the way they were constituted and function.

BJP HQs biggest in world, claims Shah

With an area of over 1.70 lakh sq ft, the BJP's new headquarters is bigger than the office of any other political party in the world, party president Amit Shah said on Sunday at the inauguration of the office. The office is located at Deen Dayal Upadhyay Marg in Delhi and it makes the BJP the first major political party to shift its office outside Lutyens’ Bungalow Zone, following a Supreme Court directive asking parties to relocate from there.