Friends of BJP Meet, April 13th, New Delhi

Having missed the last Friends of BJP meet because of prior engagements, I made it a point to attend the meet yesterday at Siri Fort Auditorium. The auditorium was full, although not overflowing like the last such meet in Delhi (probably because yesterday was Baisakhi).

Friends of BJP claims to be a 'subset of the educated civil society that is BJP-leaning, and willing to be vocal about it'. It is not officially a wing/organ of the BJP, neither does it agree with the BJP on all matter. However it is their belief that 'at this point of time the BJP is a better alternative'. The core team consists of middle & upper class professionals - lawyers, bankers, entrepreneurs and even the winner & a finalist of ToI's Lead India thingie! The Friends of BJP seeks to be all weather body which works closely with the BJP during elections as well as otherwise. More about them here.

Among those who spoke were Rajesh Jain (who sold IndiaWorld to Satyam for $115 million in 1999) from the organizers. His speech was centered around not so much the virtues of the BJP as the apathy of what he called 'Middle India' - how they refuse to vote, take little interest in matters of national interest and generally take comfort in the 'kya farak padta hai' and 'sab neta chor hai' philosophies. Consequently his main exhortation was that this class vote - to whichever party, but vote.

Arti Mehra (Mayor of Delhi) and Vijay Goel (ex-Union Minister and BJP's candidate for the New Delhi seat) also spoke. While the latter concentrated of on his work in the then Chandni Chowk constituency, the former stuck to extolling the star speaker of the evening - BJP GenSec Arun Jaitley.

Arun Jaitley's didn't dissapoint. From a tirade against 'Majboor' Dr. Singh to paens to 'Mazboot' Mr. Advani, from lambasting the UPA to dismissing the Third Front, he did it all. However what I found really heart warming was the part of his speech dedicated to us professionals. He referred to BJP's manifesto - which promises raising tax exemption to 3 lacs and reducing interest rates on housing & education loans - and pointed out that other parties haven't even bothered to promise anything concrete and have chosen to 'merely pay lip service to the power of the youth'. Jaitley pointed out, Dr. Singh outrightly dismissed the idea of a low tax, low interest-rate regime as 'wishful thinking'. Excerpts of Jaitley's speech can be found here.

My account here may be tinged by my soft corner for the BJP, but the truth is that the BJP is the only one even trying to directly engage us young professional. While the viability of the Friends of BJP's viral marketing effort (the want the 50k registered members to each talk to 25 others and so on about the need to vote and vote for the BJP) is yet to be determined, the using of new age media to achieve the same is commendable.

A visit to their website maybe interesting, if for nothing else then for their interesting write-ups on 'What you can do this Election', 'Hosting Drawing Room Conversations', 'Conducting Small Meetings', etc.