Membership drive: With 10 crore karyakartas added, BJP begins ideology training

NEW DELHI: With its membership drive successfully enrolling over 10 crore members, the BJP is all set to embark on its stage two of the campaign -of reaching out to new members and drilling them in core party ideology.

Starting August 1, nearly 15 lakh of the new members who have successfully enrolled at least 100 members each, will undergo a three-day training programme under which they will be told about the the ‘sangh school of thought’, BJP’s role in ‘nation building’, and briefed about the various agitations the party has initiated, including ‘resistance to emergency,’ ‘opposition to zamindari system’ and the Ram temple ‘movement."

All India general secretary of BJP P Muralidhar Rao said the party plans to organise multiple training sessions in 11,000 mandals across the country, in batches of 150 people each. The curriculum has been drafted into three parts - party’s history and ideology, its achievements, agitations and struggles, profiles of its leaders and its contribution to nation building.

"This intensive training is being done at this scale for the first time to show we are not a missed call party or an electioneering party alone. We want our cadre to be committed to our ideology of nation building." A significant part of the training session deals with the ideology of the sangh and the work done by organisations related to the sangh parivar.

"The BJP is a party that belongs to a school of thought, not a standalone party. The sangh believes in the same ideology like we do and we want our new members to know the entire family well so that we are able to coordinate better," Rao said.

Special sessions have been marked for lectures on Integral humanism, cultural nationalism, Jan Sangh, speeches of leaders such as Atal Bihari Vajpayee and life struggles of Jan sangh leaders such as Shyama Prasad Mukherji and Deen Dayal Upadhyay. Hundreds of marriage halls or school buildings will be rented for the training programme, leaders said.

While the primary level training is just of a day, the subsequent district and state level training will be of two and three days, respectively. The curriculum will be around the same but the subjects will be more intense.

"The BJP has undergone a lot to reach where it is today. From zamindari to emergency and from K a s h m i r s t r u g g l e t o Ramjanmabhoomi, the party’s contribution to nation building is immense which has to be told to the youngsters," Rao said.

Training 15 lakh people in just three months is quite a challenge for the party, admitted Rao but added that the party will ensure by October, the party will have a motivated cadre that it can bank upon.