BJP's allure: The lack of a clear ideology

The party is comfortable with the current Constitution and laws of India, which are sufficiently flexible

Given that we are in a period of phenomenal dominance by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), and are likely to be governed under it for another decade, it is unusual how unstudied its ideology is. I met with a political scientist from the West this week, who was researching amendments the BJP had made recently, but the person said there was no framework under which these were being examined.

On its website our ruling party says it “is today the most prominent member of the family of organisations known as the Sangh Parivar”. The BJP professes an ideology — which it