The BJP’s national executive, which was held after more than two years, ended with a 45-minute speech by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, where he focused on establishing an interpersonal relationship with party workers and asked party leaders to become a “bridge of faith for the common man”.
PM Modi’s speech, as per leaders who were a part of the meet, focused on creating an emotional and interpersonal connection with the people including workers who toil for the party.
PM Modi, during his speech, gave his own example of how he, during the Covid-19 lockdown, called up old friends and party leaders seeking their well-being. “They told me that on getting my call, they felt like they too were a part of the government”, the PM said. He also gave the example of how government employees did not avail Leave Travel Concession (LTC) despite the validity of the same being extended by the Ministry of Finance.
“His speech was truly the highest point of the otherwise ‘mechanical’ proceedings that is expected from any such events of a political party. He told us that now the party has reached a point where many things related to its functioning will happen automatically now, organizational structure will function on its own and that we need to focus on creating, maintaining and sustaining a feeling of ‘apnapan’ (belonging) among the party members and people”, a well known party functionary told The Daily Guardian,
During the five-hour-long congregation of party functionaries, the discussion revolved around the upcoming elections in the five states, the 100 crore—that is 1 billion—vaccination “achievement”, the government’s policy that swiftly “revived” the economy post the lockdown and the Covid management done by the BJP government at the Centre and the states. Four booklets highlighting these issues and one on “Kamal pushp”, which is a new feature in the NaMo app, were released.
The government, according to party leaders, is concerned about the negative perception it had generated during the second Covid wave. Accordingly, BJP leaders have been asked to reach out to the voters and tell them how the government “successfully” tackled the pandemic.
Apart from Covid-19, the party leaders deliberated on the steps that were to be taken to expand the party across India. In pursuance of this, Union Minister Dharmendra Pradhan, while briefing the media, said that the party would set up booth committees in all 1,040,000 polling booths, deploy panna pramukhs (voter list in-charges) in them and institutionalise Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Mann Ki Baat in every booth within the next six months.
There was no deliberation on the topic related to border tension with China, inflation or terror, party sources told this newspaper. The three farm laws came up for discussion.
Party president, Jagat Prakash Nadaa, while inaugurating the meet, said that the party’s peak was yet to come and the party was yet to expand in states such as Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Odisha and Telangana.
The political situation in West Bengal too came up for discussion, where the party is facing a sort of exodus to the TMC, with BJP leaders alleging “violence and atrocities” against their workers at the hands of the state’s ruling party and government. The party said that it said it would “stand like a rock” with the state unit and the people despite the “violence and atrocities” against party workers and that it “will fight back democratically.”
As per Pradhan, of the 346 members in the national executive, 342 attended the meeting, while 124 leaders were physically present in the meeting.
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, while addressing the media, shared the work done by the government to combat the challenges posed by the pandemic.
An 18-point political resolution, moved by Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath and seconded by Tamil Nadu BJP chief K. Annamalai too was adopted. Among the resolutions that were passed included ensuring victory in the Assembly elections slated early next year. As per Nirmala Sitharaman, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath was asked to move the resolution as he is the CM of the biggest state in the country and for the way he tackled Covid-19 and generated jobs in his state.
The resolution also criticised opposition parties and condemned their “opportunist politics”. “They were not to be seen on the streets during Covid, but did everything to create confusion on Twitter. At the time when the Prime Minister was trying so hard to build trust within the country and image of the country, they were trying to weaken it,” Sitharaman said in an apparent dig at Congress leader Rahul Gandhi.
The resolution welcomed India’s position on climate change in the ongoing COP26 at Glasgow, vaccination programme, and other achievements of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, including “corruption-free government” and “reduction in terrorist activities in Jammu and Kashmir”.
Six leaders including Goa Chief Minister Pramod Sawant, Manipur Chief Minister N. Biren Singh, Uttarakhand Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami and Union Ministers Anurag Singh Thakur, Ashwini Vaishnaw and G. Kishan Reddy spoke on the political resolution.