ISAS Special Reports

The Institute of South Asian Studies (ISAS) at the National University of Singapore held a virtual roundtable on 27 May 2020 to address the issue of whether there is a ‘BJP System’ in Indian politics. Held a year after the 2019 general election, the roundtable assessed how long the BJP’s dominance will last, whether India’s current system is dominated by a single party, like that of the Congress in the 1950s and 1960s, or whether the BJP is displaying unique mechanisms and characteristics reflecting its efforts to shape India in its own mould.

This Special Report draws from the discussions to analyse characteristics of the party system, as it currently stands, to extrapolate medium-term trends. The report sets out to examine whether the ‘BJP System’ is in fact a dominant party system; how its dominance differs from that of the Congress; and to assess the system’s aims, tools and context by looking at the BJP’s electoral and cultural dominance, including its ramifications for democratic institutions.