It is tough to believe that forty years ago a group of genial political leaders assembled in the Indian capital to establish a new political party without the courage to own their political clan and core belief.
It is still difficult to accept that descendants of the same motley crowd of politicians now have the chutzpah to make the most provocative assertions without even batting an eyelid.
The change in the fundamental character of the party in these forty years, since 6 April 1980 when the Bharatiya Janata Party was constituted, is not the most important matter to be noted on this important anniversary which has passed almost unnoticed because of the preoccupation with COVID-19.
More crucial is the transformation it has catalysed in India's soul and spirit. Although a peripheral political force, pariah or political untouchable for close to a decade, the party gradually established hegemony over all of India and now is the most dominant political force.