April 13, 2014
By Special Correspondent, Sam Prasad Jillella
Mehta, Director of the Overseas Friends of Bharatiya Janata Party (OFBJP), met with representatives of Metro Washington’s religious, racial, and ethnic communities of Indian origin, to boost BJP’s chances to win the majority in the Parliament.
April 13, 2014
By Special Correspondent, Sam Prasad Jillella
Mehta, Director of the Overseas Friends of Bharatiya Janata Party (OFBJP), met with representatives of Metro Washington’s religious, racial, and ethnic communities of Indian origin, to boost BJP’s chances to win the majority in the Parliament.
Yes, we can make it!: NARENDRA MODI — Bharitiya Janata Party’ (BJP) nominee for prime minister of India — a front-runner, contesting in the 16th General Election of India.
WASHINGTON DC – Independent India’s 16th General election, held in 9 phases, started on April 07, will run till May 12.
The world’s largest democracy, with more than 800 million eligible voters, will go to the polls. The result will be declared on May 16.
This General Election is estimated to be the costliest ever in modern India’s history.
At the national level, the Prime Minister (PM), head of the government, is elected by the members of the Lok Sabha (the Lower House of the Indian Parliament), once every five years.
Out of a total of 543 seats in the Lok Sabha, 272 are needed for a majority, to form the central government.
Mahesh Mehta, Director, OFBJP: “BJP stands for India, first. Every Indian is equal regardless of religious, regional, racial, ethnic, and language backgrounds. India must be a great place to live in, for every Indian … India must transform into a supreme global leader— Modi can complete the transformation!” (Photo Credit: Sam Prasad Jillella)
The main rivalry in this General Election is between two Prime Ministerial candidates: the Hindu nationalist Narendra Modi, 63, from the Bharatiya Janata Party, and Rahul Gandhi, 43, from the Indian National Congress Party.
Rahul Gandhi, educated at Harvard and Cambridge, is currently the vice president of the Indian National Congress Party.
Since India’s independence from Great Britain in 1947, if you belonged to the Nehru-Gandhi family, it was almost certain you could gain public favor and win votes. But, in the present scenario, there appears no such guarantee.
The Bharatiya Janata Party and its allies are predicted to win majority of the Lok Sabha seats against the incumbent Congress party and its allies, in the present General Election.
India’s Nobel Prize-winning welfare economist, and Harvard professor, Amartya Sen, doesn’t think Modi is an ideal candidate for PM because he generates fear in minorities: “I think I would like a more secular person to be prime minister.”
Modi has created significant economic enrichment, to the state of Gujarat, during his reign as chief minister.
But, professor Sen says he would prefer “someone who looks at social administration and not just business administration seriously.”
Babu Steven, Washington DC-based businessman: ”Rahul Gandhi is the Congress Party nominee for Prime Minister of India. Rahul Gandhi’s qualification for the job he is running for is — GF. In modern India, General Elections always meant, GF—Gandhi Family. It should not be so, in the present General Election. We now have a great candidate to lead India—Narendra Modi. Modi has 100% real chance to become India’s PM!” (Left Right) Ken Cherian, Babu Steven, Ravi Narsiah, Mahesh Mehta. (Photo Credit: Sam Prasad Jillella)
Mehta said, his purpose as Director of OFBJP has been to connect with the global community, and in the last 10 years, he travelled to more than 50 countries, connecting with global leaders of the Indian diaspora, and various other leaders of governments.
After meeting global leaders, Mehta said, he developed a very strong conviction that time for leadership change in the world has to come, and time for global leadership has to emerge in a different way, from a different hemisphere. This possibility, he said, has become stronger in his mind when he came to know that there is a candidate who can be such a global leader.
And, that candidate, Mehta says, is Narendra Modi.
Sikh leaders, representing the Sikh community of Metro Washington, gifted a turban to Narendra Modi, and want him to wear it when he visits Kuch in northwest India, where a lot of Punjabis live. (Left to Right) Chattar Saini, Soni Singh, Mahesh Mehta, Raj Saini. (Photo Credit: Sam Prasad Jillella)
“Modi is a tough leader. He is not an ordinary politician. In the last 15 years he has not taken a single day of vacation, and he works almost 18 or 19 hours a day. That’s the kind of commitment he has for his country.”
Mehta says, in his research, he discovered three qualities of a global leader— vision, dynamism, and integrity. And, he believes, Modi has all the three outstanding leadership qualities.
Mehta explains how these qualities are authentic in Modi’s political life:
1) Vision: Modi has articulated his vision in many of his speeches.
2) Dynamism: Modi is a man of dynamism. Dynamism is needed in a leader to deal with issues and lead a country like India, where every moment is a challenge.
3) Integrity: Integrity of character: is the most important quality of Modi: One can count on him, and he has been sought-after by the young population of modern India.
What Modi has done to the state of Gujarat, Mehta says, Modi can do the same to India.
In the last two months, Mehta met about 25 global leaders who would contribute to India’s transformation as supreme global leader.
Ken Cherian, Coordinator “Meet and Greet” of representatives of Indian minority groups of Metro Washington, in support of Narendra Modi: “The great challenge, the great miracle of India is—different religions, different voices, different languages, different ethnicities — you can see it in this room, now. Yet, the challenge is to come under one canopy, under one umbrella. We need to come together. It’s ten thousand ripples that create the tidal wave, it is ten thousand whispers that create the giant-roar!” (Photo Credit: Sam Prasad Jillella)
The time to transform India is now.
“Yes, Modi is the man who can complete the transformation” asserts Mehta.
Jai Hind!
Representatives of Metro Washington’s religious, racial, and ethnic groups of Indian origin, in support of BJP prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi, holding placards of the BJP election manifesto. (Photo Credit: Sam Prasad Jillella)
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