In 24 volumes
Fifty years of mission in politics
By Pramod Kumar
Bharatiya Janata Party is celebrating its silver jubilee this year. Although, the party may have turned 25, it has been in politics since 1952 in the form of Jan Sangh, which was dissolved in May 1977. Despite being 55 years? old, the party lacked proper documentation of its policies, issues it took up, etc. which are very valuable for the later generations. Apart from taking various important decisions during the silver jubilee year, the party formed a Silver Jubilee Publication Committee under the chairmanship of noted journalist Shri Dinanath Mishra to compile all valuable documents of the party. The committee has almost finished the task it was assigned and all the important documents of the party have successfully been compiled in 34 volumes. They will be released during the Party'sNational Council meeting to be held in Mumbai in December.
Formed in January this year, the committee has so far published 24 volumes-12 in Hindi and 12 in English. These include 10 volumes (five each in Hindi and English) of the Jan Sangh period, which had earlier been published by the late Rajendra Sharma, former parliamentary party secretary. Now they have been reprinted with certain modifications and improvements. ?These documents belong to the period 1952 to 1972. Since the Jan Sangh was dissolved in May 1977, some important documents of the remaining period had to be accommodated. But it was a difficult task to trace them. Because during the Emergency most of the documents were destroyed due to negligence or closure of the office. Even the periodicals were lost. By and large a lot of material of that period was unavailable. It had to be collected and compiled again incorporating the earlier published 10 volumes,? says Shri Dinanath Mishra, talking to Organiser in New Delhi.
Besides these 24 volumes, nine more volumes are in the offing and will be ready soon. Four volumes in Hindi may get delayed because of translation problems. Besides, a volume of pictorial history of the party is also being published. According to Shri Dinanath Mishra, nearly 1000 rare photographs are being accommodated in the volume. Out of these 1000 photos, about 50 per cent photos have been collected from the party, 30 per cent were purchased from professional photographers and about 50 rare photos were provided by the Kala Kunj studio, Agra, at free of cost. Several individuals have also supplied some photos.
BJP silver jubilee volumes
It took about 10 months to complete this task. About 30 people were involved in the project. ?In this project we got the help of intellectuals, scholars, professors and volunteers par excellence. There were some paid scholars also. Editing and proof reading was empowered to capable professors who belong to very higher caliber of intelligence and working knowledge. Research assistants have also worked for six-seven months,? Shri Mishra informed.
?Under the first phase from January to March, all the manifestos of the party were published in one volume. Second and third volumes comprise presidential addresses of the party. These are valuable documents and nothing was left out. In the second phase from April to August, seven more volumes were published. They are related to economic resolutions, foreign policy, internal security and other social and similar issues. There are in total 14 volumes?seven in Hindi and seven in English. The remaining volumes are being processed. The material in the volumes like history of the BJP and Jan Sangh has been written by eminent scholars who have thoroughly studied the subjects. During this period hundreds of books and documents have been collected. They are now at the final stages and will go to the press by the third week of November and will be out by December 15, before the party'sMumbai national council,? said Shri Mishra.
All the material has been collected, written and prepared by responsible leaders of the party. BJP'sworld-view and policies adopted during the NDA rule are in one volume, which is being published under Atalji'sname. The second chapter in the volume is regarding the internal and external security and has been authored by Shri L.K. Advani. The third chapter, which is on Pokhran II, its implications, status of India after the blasts, position adopted by the party right from Jan Sangh days, has been written by Shri K.C. Pant. Dr M.M. Joshi has been requested to write a paper on education, contribution during the NDA rule and the approach towards education from primary level to higher education including all the campaigns like Sarvashiksha Abhiyan, etc. There is also one chapter on IT and communication technology. Prof. Vijay Kumar Malhotra has written on how India can become a major sporting country.
According to Shri Mishra, the project is self-financing. ?We have priced every volume. The cost of each volume is Rs 500. Apart from this, five volumes of Jan Sangh documents have been priced at Rs 400. The cost of all volumes put together is nearly Rs 9,000. But for MPs, MLAs, Aajivan Sahayogi and all Working Committee Members, a set of all the volumes will be provided at a concessional rate of Rs 5000/-, barring the pictorial volume, which will cost around Rs 3,000 separately per copy. We are also in the process of making an e-book.
Asked about his experience Shri Mishra said, ?When I accepted this responsibility, I did imagine that it is a tremendous responsibility. But I had not imagined that it would require my whole time. It took almost 12 months. My routine has been disturbed. I was to write a book that I could not write. But over all I feel quite satisfied.?
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