Friends of BJP: Who Are We
Friends of BJP is a subset of the educated civil society, which is BJP leaning and willing to be vocal about it. It is an associate organisation of the BJP and aspires to be a national movement, which will steer the formation of an effective and efficient Government at the centre.
Our identity, objectives, position and responses are governed by a well defined intellectual and philosophical framework. We are committed to the principals mentioned below:
- We are foremost and above all for the nation. Our fundamental objective is the security, prosperity and development of India and all Indians.
- We stand for equality and equal opportunity to all Indians irrespective or class, creed, caste, religion, ethnicity or economic status.
- We stand for civil liberties and respect the rights of the individual. Though the constitution grants these rights, the state often denies these to citizens, especially to those who are poor.
- We are committed to economic development. We believe that the state should act less as a participant and more as a facilitator and impartial regulator of economic activity.
- We believe that development of infrastructure, both physical and social, is of paramount importance in the economic development of the nation and that not enough has been done in this sector.
- We stand for a strong and secure India. We believe that the state should be more proactive in its preparation and robust in its response when it comes to the safety and security of its citizens.
- We believe that India must increase educational opportunities at all levels. India must eradicate illiteracy within five years.
- We believe that mechanism to support access to adequate, modern and effective healthcare to the disadvantaged people of India should be provided.
- We stand for probity and transparency in public life. The scourge of corruption has to be tackled at all levels in our governance structure. The state as well as its citizen needs to be eternally vigilant against illegal acts of private gain at the cost of the larger good.
- India has a diverse, rich, fascinating and valuable cultural heritage. This heritage should be adequately preserved and disseminated within and outside the country. Our culture should be used as a mechanism for promoting social harmony and building bridges with divisive elements in society.
- We believe in harmonious and cooperative relations between countries based on mutual respect and common good. Our national self interest must be clearly defined and upheld in all interaction with other nations.
Friends of BJP to be revived
Great News! In his Presidential Address at the National Council meeting in Indore on Feb 18, BJP President Nitin Gadkari has said that Friends of BJP will be revived: “We are also planning to revive Friends of BJP, an associate organisation of the non-member Well Wishers of the party. All patriotic citizens, especially all young professionals who look forward to BJP as an instrument of making India a resurgent republic are welcome to join this forum.”
We will be back with more details soon.
What should Friends of BJP do?
As Friends of BJP, we are all disappointed with what the results. Even as we introspect on what has gone wrong for the BJP and the Left (and what has gone right for the Congress), we need to also look ahead. BJP did not do particularly well in many urban areas across India. In fact, it ended up losing all the seats in Delhi, and failed to win any in Mumbai. Urban Middle India is what the Friends of BJP would like to focus on. The question for all of us is: what role can the Friends of BJP play going ahead?
Friends of BJP – Indian Diaspora USA
The movement has started and we are here to stay.
We talked about national issues [Development, National Security, Concerns regarding Terrorism, Unicode, Vote bank politics, Illegal immigration]; and apathy of middle India; and how we can make a difference by just encouraging people to exercise their franchise, at the least.
Objective of the meeting:
- GO TO VOTE
- VOTE for a NATIONAL PARTY
What would be the efficient medium to achieve these Objectives and How:
- Personal calls
- Blogs
- Social networking and internet networking sites
- Email campaign
- Reach as many people as you can, every VOTE counts.
- Advertise on popular sites
Next steps -
- We will keep reminding people 2-3 times a week.
- Get them registered to on Friends of BJP site
- Email campaign
- Blog and write on internet
- Distribute pamphlets of “Friends of BJP” to university campus, Indian stores and apartment complexes. The content of the pamphlets is:
- “Please request your loved ones to “GO AND VOTE” for India Election 2009
- Future of the country is decided by each vote, every vote counts.
- Trust in yourself that you can make a difference.
- Go to www.friendsofbjp.org” and become part of the movement to change the face of India, your motherland”
- Advertise on sites which allow it
I am trying to use my network of close friends to propagate the message to other states as well; California, New York, Texas, Boston, Chicago and New Jersey.
Feedback from the meetings is appended below:
- Absentee Ballot
- Eliminate criminals from political systems
- National party should be non polarizing for the greater good
- National party’s lack of presence or representation in some states, which allows people to go to regional candidate or party
Next planned meetings are as follows -
- April 25 - Great Lakes Cricket Association 2.00 PM
- May 1 - Michigan Cricket Association 5.00 PM
- May 2 - Farmington Hills Public Library 11.00 AM
- May 8 - Ford Cricket League 9.30 AM
- May 9 - Drawing room meeting 6.30 PM
- May 10 - Bharatiya Temple 10.00 AM
- May 15 - Drawing Room meeting - 7.00 PM
All are welcome to join.
BJP’s Infrastructure Vision
Download from here. Here is LK Advani’s statement on release of the Infrastructure Vision:
Today I am pleased to present to the people of India the BJP’s Vision Document on Infrastructure Development. It articulates, in far greater detail than was possible in the Party’s Manifesto for the Elections to the 15th Lok Sabha, our broad perspectives and plans, and lays the foundations for a strong prosperous and self-confident India.
I have always believed that our country deserves infrastructure, both physical and social, that is second to none in the world and commensurate in quality and quantity with our goal of making the 21st Century India’s Century. Rapid infrastructure development is critical for accelerated economic growth, removal of unemployment, bridging the rural-urban divide, broadbasing prosperity both geographically and socially, and ensuring a better life for every citizen. Expanding and modernizing India’s infrastructure on a war footing is our solemn commitment. That the BJP can Think Big and also Implement Big, has been demonstrated by the Vajpayee Government’s two dream projects: the National Highway Development Project (NHDP) and the Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana. If elected to form the next Government at the Centre, we will be more ambitious and result-oriented than any previous Government in New Delhi.
For example, in the first 50 years of Independence, India built highways at the rate of 11 km per year. The NDA Government (1998-2004) achieved a rate of 11 km per day! The rate has dropped to less than 5 km per day during the UPA rule. A future NDA Government will speed up the implementation of NHDP by building highways at a rate of 20 km per day.
The big gap between India’s physical infrastructure needs, current as well as projected, and the ground reality is mainly due to the prolonged neglect and misrule by successive governments of the Congress party, which has governed India for the longest period since Independence. Be it highway construction, power generation, irrigation, rural electrification or railway expansion, the past five years of the UPA rule have proved to be a disaster for infrastructure development. Partha Mukhopadhyay, a senior research fellow at the Centre for Policy Research, New Delhi, has vividly described the UPA Government’s failure on the infrastructure front. “It may not be accurate to accuse this government of dropping the ball on infrastructure, for it never picked it up. The next government…will have its work cut out for redressing these deficiencies.” (Live Mint, 23 March 2009)
I am confident that the next Government will be a BJP-led NDA Government with the participation of several new allies. Our Government will meet the infrastructure challenge squarely with well thought out policies and programmes, and implement them with a firm commitment to our stated theme of Good Governance, Development and Security. The Infrastructure Vision document has rightly identified that the main constraint in infrastructure development in India is not as much the availability of finance as poor governance. Faulty policy and legal framework, corruption, red tape, political interference, lack of intra-Governmental coordination, judicial delays, and lack of autonomy and accountability at the execution level have paralyzed project delivery. The document lists very specific Good Governance measures that we will take to remove these deficiencies.
BJP recognizes that 80% of infrastructure development in India still requires public investment. This underscores the paramount role of Government in planning, financing and time-bound execution of projects, including projects under the Public-Private Partnership (PPP) framework. Aware of this responsibility, a future BJP-led NDA Government will take bold steps to boost efficiency of project delivery in the public sphere and facilitate project implementation in the private sphere. India’s public sector, which has amassed tremendous experience in infrastructure project implementation over the decades, is our national pride. The NDA Government will strengthen the public sector, and enable it to make its fullest contribution to infrastructure expansion in India. At the same time, we will also fully encourage participation by India’s private sector, which has grown enormously both in size and project implementation capability. The Government will fully leverage the private sector’s resources and capabilities by aggressively expanding the scope of Public-Private Partnerships.
One of the many salient features of the BJP’s Infrastructure Vision is the commitment to adopt 100 Projects of National Importance (PNIs) from different sectors and ensure their time-bound implementation. These include:
WATER: Vision - ‘Har Haath Ko Kaam, Har Khet Ko Paani’ (Employment to every hand, Water to every farm-land) and Clean Drinking Water to every home. To achieve this, (i) speedy implementation of the river-linking project. (ii) Completion of major irrigation and drinking water projects. (iii) Construction of at least one new water conservation facility (pond, check dam, etc.) in each of the six lakh villages in the country and universalisation of rainwater harvesting in urban India. (iv) Massive expansion of micro-irrigation systems to promote the goal of ‘More Crop Per Drop’.
ENERGY & POWER: Vision - Affordable electricity, 24×7, to every home, every farm, every factory. For this, (i) addition of 120,000 MW of power generation capacity in five years. (In its five years, UPA added less than 30,000 MW.) (ii) Of this, an ambitious target of 20% from non-conventional sources such as wind, solar and biomass-based projects. The best brains will be invited from around the world to work on a National Mission for Energy Conservation and Adoption of Green Technologies to make India a global leader in Green Energy. (iii) Within 100 days, launch a new programme to replace the failed Rajiv Gandhi Vidyutikaran Yojana (where the coverage for BPL families in the UPA regime has been an abysmal 6%). The new NDA program would award franchises that guarantee universal coverage within five years. (iv) NDA will also launch vigorous international initiatives that ensure India’s long term energy security.
ROADS: Vision - World-class highways linking every Indian city and pucca roads linking every Indian village. (i) Completion of all components of the National Highway Development Project - Golden Quadrilateral, East-West-North-South Corridors, and District Highways. (ii) Completion of the Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana before 2014. (iii) National Mission for Road Safety to reduce by half fatalities (130,000 per year) in road accidents.
RAILWAYS: Vision - To make railways more accessible, comfortable and safer for every Indian, and to further strengthen the role of railways as an engine of economic growth. For this, (i) completion of all pending rail network expansion projects in a time-bound manner. (ii) Dedicated Freight Corridors connecting Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai and Kolkata, and these to other mineral and industrial hubs. (iii) Modernization of 100 important railway stations. (iv) Urban mass transit (metro rail) systems in the 25 largest cities of India.
PORTS AND SHIPPING: Vision - To make Indian ports among the best in the world. For this, (i) launch of ‘Sagar Mala’ project for a massive expansion and modernization of India’s port and shipping infrastructure. (ii) Development of inland waterways in at least five important stretches. (iii) Improve efficiency of port operations so as to reduce the average number of days it takes to clear import cargo from 20 to 5. (iv) Make India a major hub for ship-building.
CIVIL AVIATION: Vision - To make air-travel more affordable, more comfortable, more universal and more safe. For this, (i) modernization of airport infrastructure in every state capital and important commercial centre. (ii) Improve linkages from city centres to airports with the help of expressways, MRT and buses. (iii) Make India a hub of aircraft production, repair and overhaul.
TELECOMMUNICATIONS & IT: Vision - To consolidate the gains of the ICT Revolution in ‘India’ and bring its benefits to ‘Bharat’. For this, (i) National Digital Highway Development Project for the creation of a robust, fault-resilient, redundant-capacity national Internet backbone. (ii) Pradhan Mantri Gram Digital Sadak Yojana for nationwide last mile connectivity. (iii) Unlimited broadband Internet connectivity to every village at cable TV prices. (iv) Increase mobile phone subscribers from the present 40 crore to 100 crore; and achieve parity between mobile and Internet users. (v) E-Bhasha, a national mission for promotion of IT in Indian languages. (vi) Develop a globally competitive IT hardware industry in India to reduce dependence on imports. (vii) Multi-purpose National ID Card Project to be completed in three years. (viii) Prepare a plan for creating 1.2 crore IT-enabled jobs in rural areas.
RURAL AND AGRI-INFRASTRUCTURE: Vision - To bring prosperity, employment opportunities and vibrancy to our villages. For this, our guiding concept will be PURA (Provision of Urban Amenities in Rural Areas). (i) Providing kisans with 24×7 electricity supply (as has already been achieved in Gujarat through the Jyotigram Yojana). (ii) Pucca, all-weather road connectivity to every village. (iii) Provision of clean drinking water and total rural sanitation. (iv) A national programme for modernization of agricultural markets (Mandis), including legislative reform of their functioning to reduce intermediaries, so that farmers get better price for their produce. (v) Massive investment in agro-support infrastructure like grain banks, cold storage houses and agro-processing units within rural clusters. (vi) Reforming the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme in such a way that it can make better contribution to creation of durable rural infrastructure with zero corruption.
Setting up NIFMA and empowering 100 Sreedharans: The NDA will set up a high-powered National Infrastructure Facilitation and Monitoring Agency (NIFMA), along the lines of FIPB in the ’90s, with a clear mandate to accelerate the implementation of PNIs. The composition of NIFMA, featuring the best of talent from the public and private sectors, itself will reflect the spirit of innovative public-private partnership. It will provide quarterly updates to the nation on the progress of PNIs and other projects. The NIFMA will report to the Prime Minister.
The NDA recognizes that infrastructure development needs decisive, results oriented and inspirational leadership. India has huge managerial talent. Unfortunately, our managers rarely get the autonomy and requisite powers, coupled with clear accountability norms, to show their true mettle. Whenever a right manager for the right project has been given the right powers to execute, we have seen amazing results. Shri E. Sreedharan of the Delhi Metro is a notable example, but there are many more. The NDA will create an environment of top-level managerial empowerment for the emergence of 100 Sreedharans who can “make things happen”.
Financing infrastructure development: The estimated investment needed to make a big dent in infrastructure deficit in the country over the next five years is Rs. 25,00,000 crore or $500bn. Although mobilization of this amount looks a formidable task, the NDA assures the nation that it will meet the challenge successfully. The NDA is committed to bring back the enormous black money stashed away in tax havens abroad. This will be used towards the development of infrastructure in our country. India’s forex reserves (now standing at $247.3 billion) will be tapped for funding infrastructure development.
National Integrated Urban Renewal Mission: The NDA will recast and vastly expand the coverage of the Jawaharlal Nehru National Renewal Mission into four urban renewal missions:
- Jawaharlal Nehru Metro Renewal Mission (for about 40 cities with a population of more than 10 lakh);
- Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel District Centre Renewal Mission (for all the 600 plus district towns, other than those covered in JNMRM);
- Netaji Bose Tehsil Town Renewal Mission (for all the 4,000 plus taluka towns); and
• Pavitra Bharat Teerthasthan Renewal Mission (for the pilgrimage centres of all faiths).
At least 15 Indian cities will be developed as Global Cities in 5 years, with world-class airports, efficient mass transportation system, high quality social infrastructure, vibrant cultural life and a dynamic environment for economic growth with strong global linkages. At least 10 new cities will be developed on a futuristic standard of planning and infrastructure.
BJP Manifesto Highlights Presentation
Ajay Shyanbhog has put together a presentation of the BJP Manifesto which can be useful for sharing and discussion.
BJP Candidates List
Here is the list of all the BJP candidates (XLS file).
Polling Schedule available here.
India’s Emergent Middle Class
An echo for what we are doing as part of Friends of BJP can be found in an article in today’s Hindustan Times by Ashok Malik:
These are disparate groups but they are waiting to be welded into an all-India constituency. This is India’s emergent middle class, a much larger demographic than anything the country has seen. In 2009, the idea was too radical for the national parties. In the next two years, the Congress and the BJP must prepare.
Friends: We have made the start with our focus on Middle India. We would love to get ideas from you all on how we can keep the movement going beyond May 16? What do you think we should do?
Why BJP — Talking Points
In case you are hosting Drawing Room Meetings, here is a short presentation that you may find useful:
Experience of Conducting Small Meetings
by RP Singh
RP has been conducting various small meetings in Mumbai over the past few weeks. Here, he gives a first-person account.Hopefully, this will inspire many of you to do the same in your neighbourhood!
Acting on virally spreading the message, I set on with small group meetings of 4-25 people.
Originally we had planned to conduct these small meetings in known people’s home or society complexes. However after talking to few people, I realized that these planned meetings were not happening on weekdays due to busy schedule of working class and apathy towards politics in general. Hence I decided to start with the Johnson garden, where I go for my daily morning walk. One of my known contacts who is an ex - BJP corporator joined me in this initiative. Our first meeting happened near walking track, where we stood with friends of BJP ppt and feedback form.
Subsequently we have done these meetings at least at dozen public places but mostly public gardens. We visited the gardens at different times for e.g. at 7 a.m., 8 a.m. and 9 a.m.
Our message of meeting:
1. To encourage everyone to vote as “Bad politicians are elected by good people, who don’t vote”.
2. Vote for any two largest parties of India viz BJP or Congress, as regional parties are weakening the nation due to lack of national vision and agenda.e.g. Ram Vilas Paswan has been minister for past 12 years with just 4 MPs and no ideologies.
3. Between BJP and Congress, we find BJP a much better choice due to it’s track record and approach towards security, development and governance.
4. If convinced with above points then take this message to next 25 known people through interactive sessions to make this a chain reaction.
Group size of meeting:
- 15-25 people next to jogging track:
Twice we conducted these meetings next to the jogging track which must have gathered 15-25 people. Joggers/walkers next to track picked up FBJP pamphlet and some of them stopped to listen.Younsgters appeared more enthusiastic to see the URL and sms option. At least 30% people were known to us through regular walking and talking. Rest were acquaintances having seen each other but not spoken earlier. Local corporator advised to keep this meeting short as this could be violation of code of conduct without prior permissions with police and election officer.
- Smaller group of 4-10 people scattered in different group around jogging track.
I found these meetings most effective, as most participants get chance to interact and express their point of view. Such small meetings conducted as discussions sessions don’t run the risk of “code of conduct” and encourages participants to open up.
At Jogger’s park, Bandra: Spoke to people in small group of 4-6 people and later spoke to people walking out of garden.
Overall feedback from meetings:
1. First two points of voting and voting for any two largest parties was well received by almost 100% people.
2. On question of BJP or Congress, 70% respondents preferred BJP over congress.
3. 70% respondents showed synergy with BJP’s development, security and governance agenda.
4. People are excited to see young and professionals taking to politics to set new example and fresh thought process.
5. Few people expressed dissatisfaction of 30th April as date of voting, since it’s beginning of long weekend.
6. People generally have started showing sensitivity towards voting as a responsible act than taking road to Mahabaleshwar or Lonavala for vacation.
7. Corruption and criminal image of politicians have made general public awry of politics and politicians.
8. There is degree of cynicism when we here someone stating that “In politics everyone is a thief”. This is also reflection of huge gap in expectations from Politicians, who are supposed to be “model people leader” than corrupt, criminal and liars.
9. Good number of people opted to vote for party than solely the merit of local candidates. Though expectations are for younger prime minister Candidate and candidates with education and clean image.
10. Unanimously most disapproved the mushrooming of smaller parties.
11. By and large people displayed sensitivity towards voting for any two largest parties. Few people spoke about issues of Varun, Ram temple and negative media.
12. Good number of people appreciated the idea of bringing Swiss money back to country.
13. A regular lady walker has assured to take the message to her kitty party members and assured support of around 100 ladies for BJP.
Places of meetings held so far:
Mulund:
Johnson and Johnson garden at 7 a.m., 8 a.m. and 9 a.m. on three different days.
Sardar Tarasingh Garden 7.30 a.m. and 7 p.m.
Devidayal Garden 8 a.m.
Kalidas Kridangan: 8.30 a.m.
BJP local office karyakartas: 8 p.m.
Trading community Mulund: 12 p.m.
Nahur society
Bandra:
Jogger’s park, Bandra: 6 p.m.
Next scheduled meetings:
19th April: Mulund, around 400 people from local business community
Tilak Nagar