SURENDRA ULLAL & INDIA POST NEWS SERVICE
Leading Indian Americans across the US have hailed the massive victory of the BJP-led National Democatic Alliance (NDA) under Prime Minister Narendra Modi in this year’s Lok Sabha elections. While the NDA collectively won 353 of the 542 seats contested, the BJP itself won 303 seats, extending its 2014 tally of 282.
Dr Bharat Barai, a noted Oncologist and a front ranking community leader in Chicagoland, said that the Modi’s landslide victory would give the country much needed stability at the Center and boost economic growth all around.
“The election victory also has generated lot of expectations among the Indian people and I have on the spur of moment a couple of things to suggest that the new government and the BJP should be addressing,” Dr Barai said.
“There is huge talk about Special status that was offered to the Jammu and Kashmir when it joined the Indian Union. People want the abortion of the special status (to the state) enshrined as part of the Constitution. But that will require constitutional amendment and has to be carefully addressed,” he said
“But the government can with a Presidential proclamation abolish the Article 355 provision which bars many, including Indians, to start business or opt for residence in J&K. This can be done with a new percolation from the President annulling the one that was done away back in the mid-Fifties. This would be good for the economy of the state and India.”
Dr Barai also said that the BJP should have a person of the stature and understanding of Nirmala Sitharaman to head the party.
“She hails from the South , the area that BJP has to get a strong foothold. But importantly, she is qualified and deserving politician acquitting herself well as Minister of State for Finance and Defense Minister,” he said
“By and large, if the new government keeps on treading the part that the previous government treaded, it should be doing a great job for the people of India ensuring stability and growth.”
Mafat Patel, a leading Indian American businessman known as Uncrowned King of Devon in Chicago, said that “we all are familiar with the famous ‘Tryst with Destiny’ speech made by Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru on the midnight of August 14-15,1947”.
“But I feel the acceptance speech made by Narendra Modi to thousands of BJP workers was steeped in profound wisdom and statesmanship,” Patel said
“Every word that he spoke reflected volumes of his humble personality and positive persona and his total dedication to the cause of the nation. Every Indian, who wants to learn and grow along the path of excellence, can pick up many pearls of wisdom from his wonderful rhetorical repertoire.”
Stating that he analyzed the speech not as a Modi fan, nor as a person steeped in BJP ideology, Patel said: “In his entire speech, he didn’t even once mention that ‘he’ won or that ‘he’ defeated his rivals. There was no trace of arrogance or bitterness in his speech. He said that elections are fought on votes and majority and nation can march forward only on consensus.”
Dr Dayal T. Meshri, President, Advance Research Chemicals, Tulsa, Olahoma, said that though he was reasonably hopeful about Modi romping home victorious, he was pleasantly surprised with the margin with which he won. He attributes this to enlightened Indian voters, especially the youth among them, even though many a businessman and many in the farming community were upset about his GST, demonetization program and widespread reports about farmer suicides.
“My faith was in the youth,” Dr Meshri said and recalled his meeting with young women entrepreneurs aged 25 to 40 who same to Tulsa as part of the State Department’s move make them have a first-hand feel of business practices in USA. Dr Meshri entertained them in Tulsa and got convinced that youth hailing from the Punjab to Kerala formed a very powerful force supporting Modi.
Dr Meshri feels that the victory in the elections is the first lap of a journey for lifting up India economically, politically in the global sphere and, more importantly, morally rooting out corruption.
Iftekhar Shareef, a front-ranking community leader and Federation of Indian Associations (FIA) Trustee, said that it is the peoples mandate and all must respect the democratic process in electing Modi for the second term with absolute majority.
“No matter what is your choice of party one should respect the outcome of election,” Shareef said.
“The first five years of BJP rule (under Modei) was in learning the mistakes done by previous leaders and also implementing good projects of previous governments for India as well as for the poor and agriculture sector , whether it is building homes for poor or supporting the agricultural community in forgoing loans and other support.”
Shareef said that the new government must think of development first, jobs for youth, support friendly agriculture policies, save farmers from suicide with effective policy on uniform pricing of rice, wheat, grains and other products.
“Farmers don’t need to suicide, as they are the one who is feeding 1.2 billion people in India,” he said.
“Narenderbhai should support the minorities including Dalits, Christians or Sikhs irrespective of what their habits of eating, must stop the mob Lynching of minorities and other atrocities which have increased recently especially after this recent election results.”
Nirav Patel, a Chicagoland community leader and businessman, said that “we all BJP volunteers in USA are extremely happy for BJP’s landslide victory in parliamentary elections in India”.
“We are looking at Bharat as a Vishwaguru in the upcoming years and Narendra Modi as a global leader,” he said.
“We strongly believe India has to be very powerful to keep the peace in South Asia for that we have to strengthen our military power with our ally countries like America, Europe, Israel and Russia.”
Patel further observed that “we need to be looking forward to help our neighboring counties for their development and stand with them during disasters”.
“We strongly condemn terrorism and we strongly stand against terrorism,” he stated.
“The NRI cell (of BJP) is always there to support people in India and people of Indian origin. We welcome any suggestion for rendering any Consulate or immigration-related service and we want to work with our community to make any Consulate-related process easier without compromising Indian security.”
Anil Shah, President of World Money Exchange, said he felt good after Modi’s landslide victory as “it made me proud of our Indian voters who proved that they are very smart and highly discerning”.
“Despite all promises and tempting slogans by Congress leaders such as Rs 72,000 free per person freeing all farmers from debts, other free services etc. all people voted for BJP,” Shah said. “The Mahagathbandhan (grand alliance) failed too.”
Stating that the voters appeared to understand the reality, Shah said: “The opposition had only one plan and that was to remove Modi and nothing else. They never optioned plans for the better future of the country.”
Ajit Z. Gandhi, a community activist and financial advisor, offered congratulations to Modi, BJP president Amit Shah and the entire BJP organizaiton for the fantastic victory.
“While the best wishes for Modi 2.0 are obviously there, we all hope that NaMoji does not forget or let go one major promise which his government had made in 2014 – to bring to justice all the corrupt politicians and bureaucrats,” Gandhi said.
Gurbachan Kaur, a woman community leader, said that as the founder and president of the Hindi Club of Illinois, a not-for-profit club to promote Hindi overseas, she congratulates Modi for his big win in India.
“We hope with apart deom all the other agendas he has for the betterment of India in the next five years, he will consider promoting Hindi language also,” Kaur said.
Hasmukh Patel, a coordinator NRI-4-Modi, observed: “NRI community of United States of North America congratulate each and every newly elected members of the BJP/NDA in the Lok Sabha 2019 elections.”
Kishor Mehta, Chairman) MEATF & AMEC , said that on behalf of Congressman Danny Davis’s Multi Ethnic Advisory Task Force (MEATF), “it is a great pleasure and honor to congratulate Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP president Amit Shah for leading BJP and allies to this insurmountable election victory in India.”
“It is a victory for the people of India. The Lok Sabha election results further reaffirmed your leadership, Prime Minister,” Mehta said.
Santosh Kumar, a prominent Indian woman activist and head of Metropolitan Asian Family Services, said that Indians could not have hoped for a better result than getting Narendra Modi back as the head of government.
A.Q. Siddiqui, a front-ranking tour and travel consultant, said that Modi being back with an unprecedented mandate reflected the power of Indian democracy and this is what has been since 1947.
“Indian Muslims too have inherited it as they chose to remain attached to their motherland,” Siddiqui said. “We rejected Pakistan.”
He also said that his existence as an Indian Muslim is his testimony to his love for his motherland.
“Do not mix Kashmiri Muslims with other Indian Muslims,” Siddiqui said. “Kashmiri Muslims need a healing touch. Follow in the footsteps of late Atal Behari Vajpayee who controlled insurgency in Kashmir.”
Sunil Shah, founding president of the Federation of Indian Associations (FIA), said that this historical victory of Modi and the BJP echoed around the world.
“He (Modi) is the winner of the world’s largest democratic election in which about 600 million people voted, roughly three times the population of Brazil, from a total of 900 million eligible voters,” he said.
Dr Vijay Prabhaker , an NRI Christian leader appealed to Modi to give special emphasis on minority outreach during BJP’s second term.
Vinesh Virani of Art of Living described Modi’s victory as “truly remarkable”.
“To be a truly historic and progressive Prime Minister, he (Modi) needs to be very mindful of building an Indian community and a strong sense of nationhood,” Virani said .
“This means that the understanding should go beyond issues that fostered conflict in previous years and decades. I look forward to Modi building an India that is progressive, inclusive, and innovative in the global order.”
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