| Font Size |
Designed on similar lines as the Obama campaign, the forum asks people to register on their SMS channel by sending messages and joining their groups on networking sites. “We are not politicians, we are people like you. We might even not agree with what the BJP says or does. But we feel that it is, at present, the better alternative for a ruling party. Even if the BJP is not the best, it is certainly more promising than the others,” said Manoj Arora, the Delhi convener of the forum.
The group organised a discussion at the FICCI auditorium on Thursday, which was attended by nearly 1,000 people. BJP prime ministerial candidate Lal Krishna Advani’s son Jayant and daughter Pratibha were present too. On April 11, the forum aims to have at least 11,000 households discussing ‘Why BJP?’ in their drawing rooms.
As BJP general secretary Arun Jaitley spoke on “Why BJP?” on Thursday, there were several curious visitors who wanted an answer to the question.
Nitish Nair, a 24-year-old lawyer, said: “I have never voted but this time I want to. I am clear that I don’t want to vote for the Congress and wanted to find what stand the BJP will take on communal issues. My worries weren’t answered in the session.”
Several NRIs turned up too. “I have admired the BJP in the past and still like Arun Jaitley. I am curious to know how the BJP is going to conduct its campaign. My perception of the Indian media is that it is very biased towards the ruling party and that is why I feel these sessions are a really good way to reach out to the people,” said Neelima Chouhan, an NRI.
The ‘unofficial’ group was purportedly started by a few friends in Mumbai a month ago. “We thought about contributing to the political process. We held meetings in Pune, Bangalore and Kolkata. We launched an SMS campaign and already have 36,000 subscribers,” said Amit Malviya, a banker and one of the founder members. The other members include Rajesh Jain, managing director of Mumbai-based IT firm Net Core Solutions, and Piyush Goel, a financial consultant.
The presentations made in a corporate style focused on the reasons why voters should choose the BJP. Topics like security concerns, financial meltdown and achievements of the NDA government, and images of Kargil and Pokharan were highlighted.
“You should download the presentation from our website and share it with your friends when you meet them at coffee shops or your drawing rooms,” Malviya added.
Discuss this story on expressindia forums
|
|
It is a good sign for the country that there is a strong alternative opposition party to run a government. One of the reasons India lagging behind is that it did not have a strong opposition party in the past. Many of the decisions taken in the past by congress government was proved to be dangerous for the country, and there was no strong opposition force to rectify it. People of this country has to decide now which is better for their motherland!
the article is great but could have been more informative if a few points about the content put forth by BJP was also mentioned here. Anyways, a good article to read.