Memoirs
Brief Encounter with Narendra Modi
It was somewhere in the late ninetees that I, as an IB officer, was called to meet Sah Sar Sanghchalak at the RSS Office on Kankaria Road Ahmedabad. It was a personal-cum-officio meeting arranged through the courtesy of a common friend. The backdrop was the bombing of Chennai Office of the RSS.
The Sah Sar Sanghchalak who was from the south of the Vindhyas was a very humble man.The RSS Office itself was very spartan unlike many other offices of such national organisations where there were many hurdles to be crossed before meeting the top personalities. I went to the small hole in the wall like reception counter where I introduced myself and referred to an appointment I had with the Sah Sar Sanghchalak. I was asked to go to the first floor where I found the Sanghchalakji accepting me in a small room which was adorned with bare basic furniture.
While I was talking to him for about ten minutes, one sevak entered and informed Sanghchalakji that Narendrabhai has come and wanted to call on him. Sanghchalakji said that ask Narendrabhai to wait and he will be called in when the present meeting is over. After another five minutes the Sevak once again came and gave a similar message and Sanghchalakji responded in the similar vein as above. A little later Sevak once again came and said that Narendrabhai is in hurry to meet. Sanghchalakji again responded in the similar fashion and asked the Sevak to tell Narendrabhai to wait little more time.
Seeing the haste of Narendrabhai, I excused myself and took leave of the Sanghchalakji. Narendrabhai was not the Chief Minister of Gujarat then, but Gen. Secretary/BJP and Sangh Pracharak and hence there was no protocol around him. I could have continued the meeting had I wanted too and it appeared that Sanghchalakji was eager to talk more but I felt that my ending the meeting would be better.
When I came out, I saw Narendra Modi sitting on a Sofa outside. Without introducing myself, I said Namaste to him and exited. Today I feel that I could have introduced myself and talked to him little more. No one had the faintest imagination then that he would be a model CM one day and be a prospective candidate for the Prime Ministership. It would not be out of place to mention here that I had submitted on file that Narendra Modi would be the next CM of Gujarat in 2001. There were doubts about this noting as he was not an elected member and was still Pracharak of the Sangh. The source who gave the information once again reiterated that he irrespective of being a Pracharak would be made CM as Keshubhai Patel was to be removed as CM of Gujarat. The source added that one similar case was of A.B.Vajpayee who was Pracharak when he entered the portal of politics.
We sincerely hope NAMO does not run the marathon in the style of 100 metres sprint. He has to watch out for each step as he is facing the opposition from wily, shrewd and master of the art Congress leaders who are far superior to anyone in the arena of Indian politics, besides numerous other parties and people. It is too early to believe the positive looking surveys and public polls which are favouring Modi today. Anything can happen between today and 2014 elections.
31-Jul-2013
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Suresh Mandan
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