BJP legislators take lessons at school run by Communist Party of China

13-member team leaves for Beijing and Guangzhou to understand CPC's party structure, functioning and role in setting up a welfare state

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) plans to not only surpass the Communist Party of China (CPC) in terms of registered members to become the planet’s largest political party but now also hopes to learn from that party's well honed skills to train cadres.

A 13-member delegation of BJP legislators left today for Beijing and Guangzhou for a week-long visit. According to a BJP statement, the delegation will try understand CPC’s internal party structure, political functioning and its role in establishing a welfare state. The delegation will interact with CPC leaders and cadres, from grassroots to its Central Committee and Politburo.

A key part of the delegation's itinerary will be a visit to the ‘Party School’ of the Central Committee of the CPC, located in Beijing. The delegation will submit a report to BJP President Amit Shah of their visit to China, and particularly to the CPC Party School. “The BJP is working towards becoming the largest party on the planet, and both BJP and CPC are cadre based parties and can learn from each other. Our (BJP's) history is evidence of how our positive attitude to constructive criticism has contributed to our growth as a political party,” BJP national secretary Shrikant Sharma said when asked about the visit of BJP members to CPC’s Party School.

Of late, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has repeatedly stressed the need for party MPs and MLAs to undergo regular training workshops. He has himself held a series of meetings with BJP MPs of different states. The party had held a two-day orientation programme for all its first time Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha members in Haryana's Surajkund in end-June.
Senior party leaders have felt the need to start structured training programmes for its workers and legislators. The visit to the ‘school’ is an effort in that direction. This current visit comes barely a week after the return of a 14-member delegation of BJP’s youth leaders from China, which was led by BJP leader Siddharth Nath Singh. The Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) had hand-picked the youth leaders.

The ‘Party School’ is the highest institution of learning of the CPC, and trains middle and senior ranking cadres of the party. “As an important organ directly under the Central Committee of the CPC, it is an important bastion for studying and publicizing Marxism, Mao Zedong Thought and the System of Theories of Socialism with Chinese Characteristics and a furnace for tempering the Party spirit,” states the ‘school’ website.

It has departments that offer courses on political history of CPC, world economy, military affairs in the contemporary world, international relations, developments in scientific research, administration and logistics, organisation and personnel, etc. It also trains teachers for the nationwide party schools. It has a staff of 1100 and can train up to 1600 students each semester.

A BJP press statement said Lok Sabha MP and former Uttarakhand Chief Minister Bhagat Singh Koshyari will lead its delegation. “The delegation will also emphasize on establishing and strengthening relations between the two ruling parties,” the statement said. External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj in her send off interaction with the BJP MLAs and MPs said that the purpose of the visit was to “support the ongoing efforts to remove the minor irritants in political, economic and geographical areas” between the two countries.

Swaraj asked the delegation to impress upon leaders of Communist Party of China and those in the government “about the positive steps initiated by the Narendra Modi government in establishing cordial relations with all neighboring countries and particularly with China.”

BJP General Secretary Ram Madhav termed it a "goodwill" visit at party to party level and that it will strengthen India-China bilateral relations. Madhav was in Beijing in early September to plan the visit by Chinese President Xi Jinping to New Delhi later in that month. Modi and Xi had agreed on greater interactions between members of CPC and BJP during the Chinese President's visit to New Delhi.

Apart from Koshyari, others MPs in the delegation are Tarun Vijay, Bhola Singh, Kamakhya Prasad Tasa and Harish Dwivedi. MLAs from Karnataka Vishwanath Patil, Visheshwar Anant Hegde; Bihar MLA Vinod Narain Jha, Bihar MLC Baidyanath Prasad, MLA from Haryana Aseem Goel, Himachal Pradesh MLA Virender Kanwar and Uttar Pradesh MLA Salil Kumar Vishnoi are also part of the delegation.