Founder:Syma prasad Mukharjee,
Founder of the Bharatiya
Jana Sangh The BJP is the successor party
of the BJS, which merged itself
into the Janata Party in 1977.
The BJP was formed as a
separate party in 1980 after
internal differences in the Janata Party resulted in the
collapse of it's government in
1979. A brief life-sketch Dr. Mookerjee's mother Jogmaya
Debi exclaimed, on hearing of her
son's death.
"Proudly do I feel that the loss
of my son is a loss to Mother
India !" Born on 6th July 1901 in a
famous family. His father Sir
Asutosh was widely known in
Bengal. Graduated from Calcutta
University he became a fellow of
the Senate in 1923. He enrolled as an advocate in Calcutta High
Court in 1924 after his father's
death. Subsequently he left for
England in 1926 to study in
Lincoln's Inn and became a
barrister in 1927. At the age of 33, he became the world's
youngest Vice-Chancellor of the
Calcutta University and held the
office till 1938. During his tenure,
he introduced a number of
constructive reforms and was active in Asiatic Society of
Calcutta as well as was a
member of the Court and the
Council of the Indian Institute of
Science, Bangalore and Chairman
of the Inter-University of Board. He was elected as member of
the Legislative Council of Bengal
as a Congress candidate
representing Calcutta University
but resigned next year when
Congress decided to boycott the legislature. Subsequently, he
contested the election as an
independent and got elected.
He became the opposition leader
when Krishak Praja Party -
Muslim League coalition was in power 1937-41 and joined the
Progressive Coalition Ministry
headed by Fazlul Haq as a
Finance Minister and within less
than an year resigned. He
emerged as a spokesman for Hindus and shortly joined Hindu
Mahasabha and in 1944, he
became the President.
After the assassination of
Gandhiji, he wanted the Hindu
Mahasabha not to be restricted to Hindus alone or work as
apolitical body for the service of
masses and broke away from it
on this issue on November 23,
1948.
Pandit Nehru inducted him in the Interim Central Government as a
Minister for Industry and supply.
On issue of Delhi pact with
Likayat Ali Khan, Mookerjee
resigned from the Cabinet on
6th April 1950. After consultation with Shri Golwalkar Guruji of RSS
Shri Mookerjee founded
Bharatiya Jana Sangh on 21st
Oct. 1951 at Delhi and he became
the first President of it. In 1952
elections, Bharatiya Jana Sangh won 3 seats in Parliament one of
them being that of Shri
Mookerjee. He had formed
National Democratic Party within
the Parliament which consisted
32 members of MPs and 10 of Members of Rajya Sabha which
however was not recognised by
the speaker as an opposition
party.
To voice his opposition he turned
outside Parliament and on Kashmir he termed the
arrangement under Article 370
as Balkanisation of India and
three nation theory of Shaikh
Abdullah. Bharatiya Jana Sangh
along with Hindu Mahasabha and Ram Rajya Parishad launched a
massive Satyagraha to get
removed the pernicious
provisions. Mookerjee went to
visit Kashmir in 1953 and was
arrested on 11th May while crossing border. He died as
detenu on June 23, 1953.
A veteran politician, he was
respected by his friends and
foes alike for his knowledge and
forthrightness. He outshined all other Ministers in the cabinet
except perhaps Pandit Nehru by
his erudition and culture. India
lost a great son at a very early
stage of Independence
