New Delhi: After wiping out the Congress from one state after another, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday asked BJP cadres to embark on a mission to expand the saffron base and infiltrate each and every nook and corner of the country.
Till now, the Congress has been the only party with an organisational reach even in the remotest areas of the country. Launching the party’s new technology-enabled membership drive on a mega scale, called “Sashakt BJP Sashakt Bharat”, Mr Modi said that the BJP should reflect the diversity of the country.
He said that through this drive, the party should make sure that every section of society gets representation. Mr Modi, who became the party’s first member after renewing his membership, also asked party workers to work hard, like they did during election campaigns, and create awareness about the democratic principles of the BJP. “Our country is full of diversity.
The BJP should also be seen as full of diversity. The bouquet of crores of BJP workers should be such that people from all regions feel that their flower is also represented in this bouquet... The party’s expansion should be such that it should touch every one and have the widest reach,” Mr Modi said.
Mr Modi said the membership drive should be such that it becomes a cause of study for other parties across the globe and social scientists and scholars should study this “pure and democratic” exercise to reach every section of society.
He said the membership drive, which will continue till March 31, should serve as an example globally. As the BJP is an important democratic organisation across the world, it should aspire to be an inspiration for all parties, he added.
He also said that the BJP never positioned itself like a force to reckon with in the democratic order, which it should do by suggesting that the BJP should invite youth leaders from other parties to study its democratic principles.
The PM said the party organisation has to be established across the country from “Kashmir to Kanyakumari, from Assam to Gujarat...penetrate to Leh, Ladakh, and the jungles of the North-East”.
He made it clear that the BJP has to expand “horizontally as well as vertically”. Horizontally, he said, the BJP has to have a presence in all six lakh villages in the country. Vertical growth includes strengthening the organisation and cadre base.
The tech-savvy PM said those days are gone when the party’s membership drive was limited geographically and one had to visit the BJP office in their respective regions.
He said that with new technology, one can become a BJP member from anywhere and would remain connected 24x7 with the party. He said that while the government has envisioned a ‘Digital India’, the saffron party has already launched ‘Digital BJP’.
Noting that people’s expectations from political leaders and parties have changed over the years, Mr Modi said people now expect them to play an important role in public life and help improve their lives. He also said that some consider politics as “dirty, but if it was dirty, Mahatma Gandhi would have never ventured into it”.
“The era of mass agitations for politics seems over... Now people expect parties and their leaders to play a significant role in public life,” he said.
