NaMo UNITING DIASPORA

MODI JI INVESTED A LOT OF TIME TO CRAFT DIASPORA CONNECT - Kanchan Banerjee, NRI, USA / Gokul Kunnath, NRI, USA / Vithal Dhaduk, NRI, USA / Jay Shah, NRI, Australia

When on the trip to the US in 2013, even before he became the Prime Minister of India, Modi ji called us and sought our ideas and opinions on how the NRI community could help in the development of India. Even at that time India was on the top of his mind and he was exploring ways in the US to leverage the advantage of the resourceful diaspora to help India’s growth story back home. There are millions of NRIs spread across the world and if they unite to promote the cause of India in whatever way they can, it can work wonders for the country. Modi ji was well aware of this possibility and wanted to exploit the same potential.

He gave two ideas to start with. He said, wherever you speak and hold lectures in different organisations as thought leaders, speak about India, her strengths and achievements and the current happenings that show her progression. Even if there are 100 such people and if each one of you hold three lectures a year, imagine the impact it will have on the people and how it will build India’s image globally as more and more people start becoming aware of India. The second thing he said was, bring at least five NRI families to me, wherever I visit. This will go a long way in boosting tourism in India and spreading awareness about India across the world.

Once during a visit to Atlanta, Modi ji said, bring to me all the people I know in and around Atlanta. This shows his commitment to keep connected to the diaspora in all possible ways and build upon the old relationships, with the progress of India on top of his mind. He invested a lot of time in connecting and building relationships to strengthen India’s prospects and possibilities through greater engagement and understanding. He was early to recognise the potential of the NRI community and the need to involve them more engagingly and productively with their motherland. Modi ji’s initiatives like popularising yoga in the world or the Swachh Bharat campaign have been eye openers and influential fulcrums of diplomacy and international bonding. After the Covid vaccination success, today even the West looks up to India as the pharma hub of the world. There has been a paradigm shift in the outlook about India and her image globally from what it was before 2014. Today the world sees India as the mother of democracy and Modi as a world statesman and much of it has to do with how Modi has crafted the image of India through propagation of her USPs, in which the overwhelming support of the NRI communities had a big role to play.

A MAN OF MANY COLOURS - Late Praveen Sharma, Former Minister, Himachal Pradesh

When Narendra Modi came here, he was the national general secretary and incharge of Himachal Pradesh. I was the state general secretary of the party and I had the responsibility to arrange for his stay and oversee all his itinerary here. He was perhaps the first state incharge who went to almost all the assembly constituencies and even reached till the village level to take meetings. And during the meetings, he was very strict. There were party elections in 1997 and within one year, in 1998, we had formed our government in the state. It was all due to Modi ji that the party came up to such a strong position that it came to power starting from a scratch. When he came here as the state in-charge, the party was not financially that strong. He suggested us to go for donations from mass collections to improve our situation. He said the party unit in the state should be self-sufficient and learn to generate its own resources. Many of the leaders and party workers here were apprehensive of the idea of mass collection and raised their doubts about its success. Modi ji still persisted with the idea and encouraged us to try it for once. He firmly believed that it would be a success. The party then took it up as a campaign. Surprisingly, within three months, we had reached our target collection. Modi ji’s prediction was right. Another interesting anecdote of Modi ji was he liked to taste the food of every place he went to. If in Mandi, he would ask what was the most famous dish of Mandi. If in Kangra, he would do the same for Kangra. He ate everything with relish. Once he came to an event in 2017. It was a long-time-no-see situation for me. I was meeting him after years. So I was a bit hesitant as to how he would approach me after so many years, now that he was the PM of the country. But as soon as he landed, he saw me and embraced me. Later he took me in his car and talked about my family, asked about my wife and my son and he even remembered I had diabetes and asked how it was. Imagine, I was meeting him almost after two decades and he remembered everything about me. This is his magnanimity. Whoever he connected with, he became a fatherly figure, taking care of their concerns.

COMPILED AND EDITED BY SHASHIKANT SHARMA