Chai Pe Charcha for NaMo Energizes BJP Supporters in Houston

Volunteers after the event on March 20m Chai per charcha at India House Houston.

Volunteers after the event on March 20m Chai per charcha at India House Houston.

By Ritesh Seal
HOUSTON: Little did the Congress party realize its greatest mistake when it hurled the ‘tea-seller’ jibe at its rival BJP’s prime ministerial candidate that catalyzed the launch of one of the largest and most successful campaign in Indian electoral history. This unique techno-driven grass root election campaign stems from the remark made by Congress leader Mani Shankar Aiyar on 17 January where he mocked Modi and said that he could not become Prime Minister but could certainly serve tea at the AICC Session.

Audience at 7:00 am at India House Houston.

Audience at 7:00 am at India House Houston.

Soon the think-tank technocrats behind Modi’s campaign launched ‘Chai Pe Charcha with NaMo’ (a discussion with Modi over tea) on 12 February. It is an interactive session with people across India and Modi over video conference via a combination of multiple communication technologies.

Audience with NaMo at India House Houston.

Audience with NaMo at India House Houston.

Chai Pe Charcha with NaMo (as Modi is fondly called by his fan base) is a unique initiative to create a platform for Modi and the general public to interact directly, through video conferencing facilities across 1000 locations in 300+ cities. These locations are common tea stalls, not only to highlight Modi’s humble origins as a tea vendor, but also because tea stalls in India are a hub of conversations where India’s most grassroots level issues emerge.
Buoyed by the success of its first phase and hoping to connect with maximum people in the second phase of CPC, BJP decided to broaden its scale and made it international by adding 30 locations in 15 countries where NaMo brigades got together to connect with Modi and interact with him over a sip of tea.
It is heartening to refer here the launch of Global Indians for Bharat Vikas (GIBV.org) platform created by a group of NRIs who keep India very close to their heart. With greatest desire of having a strong, prosperous and developed India championed under the dynamic, honest, visionary and decisive leadership of Modi, they started the “reference calling” campaign in support of NaMo, with close to 1200 volunteers all over USA and with 600+ amongst them being our lovable Houstonian brothers and sisters of Indian diasporas.
Houstonian NRIs are surely getting hooked up to the ‘Chai Pe Charcha’ big time with 2 to 3 CPC events getting organized every week since January 2014 across Houston, Woodlands, Pearland, Sugarland and Katy not to mention over 100+ CPCs that would occur simultaneously across many USA cities on 29 -30 March. The excitement reached its zenith when Houston was selected as international CPC location with ‘Farmers and Agrarian Crisis’ being the topic of interaction. Braving early Thursday morning commute at 7:00 am on a working day, it was heartening to see NaMo lovers of Desi Houstonians pour in such large numbers to take active part in CPC with Modi live from Dabhadi village of Yavatmal district, Maharashtra where the recent untimely rains and hailstorm have damaged crops. While sipping tea and munching snacks, 125+ enthusiastic Houstonian NRIs, GIBV volunteers and media personnel connected directly with the heart and soul of India and its villagers with Modi at the helm conducting his live Chai Pe Charcha which can be mentioned as synonymous to ‘footpath parliament’.
Following the above grand success, on Sunday 22 March, the Houston air waves were buzzing with NaMo NaMo as “Music Masala”, one of the most popular Indian music radio channels in Houston, detoured from its normal Bollywood beats and invited GIBV national coordinator Gitesh Desai and one of the leading community activists Vijay Pallod to discuss about the upcoming elections in India and BJP’s prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi. This special segment on the radio channel hit the chord with its listeners and the radio host Sunil Thakkar extended the hour long special segment to 90 minutes. Many avid listeners shared their personal positive experiences with Narendra Modi as Gujarat Chief Minister.
GIBV.org further intends to maximize the fervor of Houstonian NRI volunteers by facilitating them on 29 March again at India House between 10:30 am – 12:30 pm. This grand program synonymous to being the biggest CPC event in Houston would be leveraged with a 4-point agenda; enhance reference calling effort, capitalize calling effort in focused constituencies to maximize the gains for BJP, recognize volunteers traveling to India with sole intention to galvanize the voters in favor of NaMo, and last but not the least, felicitate the hard work of its core group members working hard for this cause since January, 2014.