MODI’S SIMPLE-YET-STRONG POWER PLAY APPROACH!

Modi’s penchant for cleanliness - Chandrakant Upadhyay, Vadodara

We have an RSS office at Salatwada locality of Vadodara. I was a pracharak at the office. Even then I found, Modi ji took the smallest care of any need of even the smallest karyakarta. Among all those who reached the office at 3 pm, none was allowed to leave the place without at least having a cup of tea. Modi ji ensured that himself. And I also found he was meticulous about cleanliness from early days. He would wash his own cup and also ensure all the cups had been washed clean and they were spotless. He used to ask us, “Have you all washed your cups properly?” He was so particular about cleanliness that not a piece of paper was allowed to litter the office premises. These were some things we had noticed in Modi ji very early on and they have continued till today.

Narendra Modi ji’s planned strategy for communication - Ketan Devnani, Gujarat

In 1989, 1990 and 1991 elections were to be held. Those days there were no mobile phones or internet and thus communicating with the karyakartas on the ground level, directing them or getting information was very difficult and time taking. For this, Modi ji planned a certain strategy. Most karyakartas go out for campaigning or poll related work around 11 in the morning. Thus they were mostly in their homes in the early part of the day. We sat from 7 am to 10:30 am every day and called all the karyakartas in the required constituencies within this time to get all the details and brief them about their day’s itinerary. We made a list of the karyakartas to be called the night before. So that in the morning we were well equipped and didn’t need to waste time. By 10:30 every day, Modi hi had all the grasp of the ground realities on his fingertips which helped him tremendously in formulating his next poll strategy.

MODI’S SIMPLICITY ENHANCES OUR RESPECT FOR HIM - Bharat Modi, Gujarat

Once Narendra Modi came to his school, BN High School to attend an event. There his old friend Dr Sudheer was also present. They used to sit on the same bench in school when growing up. While talking, Sudheer ji addressed Modi ji as ‘tu’ several times. Later when he realised this, he apologised to him for the disrespect and told ‘sorry I called you tu in my address’. At that time Modi ji didn’t say much. But when he went on to the stage for his speech, he said, “ I was talking to Sudheer a while back. He called me by ‘tu’ a couple of times and later also apologised for the same. But I want to tell Sudheer, that these days when I find someone addressing me as ‘tu’, my heart fills with joy.” This the simplicity and humility of Modi ji.

WHEN MODI SHOWED GRATITUDE TO HIS TEACHERS - Som Patel, Narendra Modi’s teacher

It was a unique programme I fondly remember. It was in the year 2005. He organised a programme for his teachers in Ahmedabad. It was for ‘Guru Vandana’ to seek the blessings of his teachers. He had invited 27 teachers at the event. Surprisingly, he personally went up to each and every teacher invited and addressed him by his name. He bowed in front of them in obeisance and garlanded them in honour of their services. This was a unique event never held in India before in such scale. Pt Naval Kishore Sharma was the governor of Gujarat at that time and had come to the event as chief guest. He himself said during his speech that he had travelled all over the country but had never seen or heard such an initiative as taken up by Narendra Modi in honour of his teachers.

Modi ji, a master of management - Natubhai Dhabi, Gandhinagar

It was in 1985 that an RSS camp was about to begin. A meeting was held to discusss the preparations for the same. We were five people who were overseeing the arrangements for the event. The smallest thing was ensured, from the safety pin to the soap. We had to note down everything so that nothing was found wanting during the event. Even the amount of water that would be required by a karyakarta for his shower or consumption was calculated and based on the total number of karyakartas to be attending the event, the arrangements were planned so that nothing went waste at the end of the day. All these were spearheaded by Narendra Modi. As a pracharak for 20 years, this master planning learnt from him in 1985 got imprinted in my mind and always helped me in making the best arrangements for every event of the party.

Narendra Modi started Gunotsav to improve quality of education - Parshottam Rupala, Union minister

As the state CM, Modi ji started Gunotsav, a programme to improve the quality of education in the government schools. During the Gunotsav festival, he would often visit schools to take stock of the improvements. He would usually take up the remotest school in the most backward districts to pay visit. Once during such a visit he went to a school and after the inspection, while discussing with the headmaster, he asked, where is the toilet in your school? Surprisingly, he politely said, there was no toilet in the school. This shocked Modi ji so much that the very next day as he reached office, he issued orders that every school in the state must have proper toilets, separate for boys and girls. Years later when he became the PM he launched the same campaign in the country to end open defecation and it was a resounding success. The seeds of this idea came to him from the Gunotsav experience.

COMPILED AND EDITED BY SHASHIKANT SHARMA