Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) List of presidents of the party

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), भारतीय जनता पार्टी is one of the two major political parties in India, the other being the Indian National Congress. Established in 1980, it is India's second largest political party in terms of representation in the parliament. The Bharatiya Janata Party

traditionally has supported Hindu nationalism and strongly advocates conservative social policies, self-reliance,free market capitalistic policy, foreign policy driven by a nationalist agenda, and strong national defense.The party's platform is generally consideredright of center in the Indian political spectrum.

Controversies and criticism

2002 Gujarat religious communal violence

Main article: 2002 Gujarat violence

In 2002, communal religious riots took place in Gujarat under BJP rule between Hindus and Muslims. The National Human Rights Commission criticized the government, pointing to "a comprehensive failure on the part of the State Government of Gujarat to control persistent violations of rights. A judicial commission headed by G.T. Nanavati, a former chief justice of the Indian Supreme Court, constituted to examine allegations of Gujarat state administration's involvement in the riots of 2002 said that there was no evidence to implicate either Modi or his administration in the riots.

Babri Masjid Demolition

In a 2005 book former Intelligence Bureau (IB) Joint Director Maloy Krishna Dhar claimed that Babri Masjid demolition was planned 10 months in advance by top leaders of RSS, BJP and VHP and raised questions over the way the then Prime Minister P V Narasimha Rao, had handled the issue. Dhar claimed that he was directed to arrange the coverage of a key meeting of the BJP/Sangh Parivar and that the meeting "proved beyond doubt that they (RSS, BJP, VHP) had drawn up the blueprint of the Hindutva assault in the coming months and choreographed the ‘pralaya nritya’ (dance of destruction) at Ayodhya in December 1992... The RSS, BJP, VHP and the Bajrang Dal leaders present in the meeting amply agreed to work in a well-orchestrated manner." Claiming that the tapes of the meeting were personally handed over by him to his boss, he asserts that he has no doubts that his boss had shared the contents with the Prime Minister (Rao) and the Home Minister (S B Chavan). The author claimed that there was silent agreement that Ayodhya offered "a unique opportunity to take the Hindutva wave to the peak for deriving political benefit.

Liberhan Commission findings

A 2009 report, authored by Justice Manmohan Singh Liberhan, blamed 68 people for the demolition of the mosque - mostly leaders from the BJP and a few bureaucrats. Among those named in the report were AB Vajpayee, the former BJP prime minister, and LK Advani, the party's then (2009) leader in parliament. Kalyan Singh, who was the Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh during the mosque’s demolition, has also come in for harsh criticism in the report. He is accused of posting bureaucrats and police officers who would stay silent during the mosque’s demolition in Ayodhya. Former Education Minister in NDA Government Mr. Murli Manohar Joshi have also been found culpable in the demolition in the Liberhan Commissions' Report. Anju Gupta, an Indian police officer appeared as a prosecution witness. She was in charge of Advani's security on the day of the demolition and she revealed that Advani and Murali Manohar Joshi made inflammatory speeches

List of presidents of the party

Year	Name		Rationale
1980–1986		Atal Bihari Vajpayee
1986–1991		Lal Krishna Advani	First Term
1991–1993		Murli Manohar Joshi
1993–1998		Lal Krishna Advani	Second Term
1998–2000		Kushabhau Thakre
2000–2001		Bangaru Laxman
2001–2002		Jana Krishnamurthi
2002–2004		Venkaiah Naidu
2004–2006		Lal Krishna Advani	Third Term
2006–2009		Rajnath Singh	First Term (He was re-elected for second term in Dec 2006)
2009-		Nitin Gadkari