Date: 24/10/2013
MODI AT CHENNAI : 18 OCT 2013
Lt Col CR Sundar, President Tamilnadu State BJP ExServicemen’s Cell
Sri Narendra Modiji’s visit to Chennai on 18 October 2013 was a grand political success for BJP.
More than 10,000 people had assembled at the Meenambakkam Airport to receive him. BJP, in close cooperation with the state police had made very good arrangements for crowd control and security.
At the Airport Gate No. 6 Modiji gave a brief address. He expressed his thankfulness for the fact that cyclone Phailin had shown mercy on our people of Odisha and Andhra Pradesh. He then alluded to the fact that an irrepressible desire among the people for change is now acquiring the force of an unstoppable cyclone all across India. He thanked the people of Tamilnadu for the massive turnout at the Yuva Kamal Sammelan at Trichy on 26 September 2013.
He then proceeded to ‘Kamalalayam’ the headquarters of Tamilnadu BJP. The whole route from Thirusoolam to T Nagar, a distance of about 10km, was beautifully decorated with innumerable banners and buntings hailing Modiji and welcoming him to Chennai. I have never, in the last ten years, seen such an outpouring of salutation and at the same time a gushing of joy in anticipation of receiving any leader.
State level leaders and district presidents, about a 100 of us from the whole state, were asked to assemble at Kamalalayam by 3pm. When I reached there by 2.30pm the whole premises was heavily guarded by layers and layers of police. At each barricade I was stopped, my name was checked on the list they held on clip boards, I was asked to prove my identity, frisked, requested to remove my sidecap and at one check point even told to remove my shoes.
After Modiji arrived the doors were closed and there was an hour of ultra serious discussion pertaining to ways of taking the party forward into the future.
From there we proceeded to the University Centenary Hall for the Tenth Nani Phalkiwala Memorial Lecture. Shri Cho Ramaswamy, journalist and political commentator welcomed Modiji. He is a consummate stage and film actor. During his talk he walked across the stage mimicking our Prime Minister Man Mohan Singh’s gait and bent low in a hand shake to illustrate how our nation’s self respect has fallen.
Shri Arun Shourie whose latest book on Sino Indian relations was released on that occasion took the podium next. His speech was filled with memorable anecdotes. But the best was when he said that in recent years India’s defence budget is never discussed in Parliament but “decided by the Defence Committee headed by the greatest international strategist of all times..…..Raj Babbar!!”
Modiji then gave a gripping speech filled with his visions for the nation’s future. For many millennia our country had been the leader of the world in knowledge and culture. We have lost that supremacy. To regain it he suggests each of our 30 states should partner one country of the world; for example, Goa with Portugal, Pondicherry with France and so on. That way we would have people in that state with knowledge of the other side’s language and culture. And we would have a minimum of 30 friendly countries totally on our side on all issues. I think that is a great idea worth taking forward.
Let us now take on your question which is about the so called ‘students’ protest’ which was shown on some channels. From what I hear in recent years certain religious organizations are propping up paid activists as students. A TV channel run by them had highlighted the event. All other channels only showed their view. One advocate has given a petition to the City Police Commissioner to investigate the back ground of these ‘students’.
In any case it was just a storm in an egg cup and such events are welcome since they add to the publicity for Modiji and BJP. That is my personal opinion.
All in all Modiji’s visit was an unparalleled success and all political parties of Tamilnadu are looking for ways to approach BJP to reap some benefit for themselves from this overwhelming desire of the people to support Modiji as our next Prime Minister.
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