Narendra Modi speaks at the 29th Annual Session of FICCI Ladies Organization (FLO)
By Brigadier Chitranjan Sawant, VSM
FICCI is a powerful entity and its women’s wing wields more political and economic power than the main body. At their Annual General Meeting, Narendra bhai Modi was the Chief Guest on Monday, 8th July 2013. The sessiom was so successful that everyone connected with it was patting his or her back. Of course, it was Modi’s show from Aye to Zee, he was on the centre stage all along and every word that left his lips was heard by one and all with rapt attention, never mind the politico-economic views of the listeners. The members and guests kept standing in the auditorium of a five-star hotel in New Delhi as the hall was packed beyond capacity. Of course, the venue was shifted twice to accommodate the unexpectedly large numbers of economists wishing to hear Narendra Modi.
The 42 year-old scion of the Nehru-Gandhi family had addressed the CII audience a couple of days earlier and both the content and the style did not have much to write home about. Indeed that factor aroused people’s imagination and they were rather over keen to hear Narendra Modi and have his speech saved for narration as a bed-time story for adults.
Swami Dayanand Saraswati, the great socio-religious reformer of the 19th century India did a yeoman’s service to Mankind in general and the Hindus of Bharat in particular by unlocking the divine knowledge, VEDAS, and undertaking to take them to commoners in its Hindi translation to empower them, especially the women folk. He achieved tremendous success and the commoners, women folk in particular, felt that they had acquired a place in the Hindu society, under the sun, and the Vedic empowerment enabled them to walk erect and hold their heads high.
EMPOWERMENT OF WOMEN
Narendra Modi was given a theme and it goes to his credit that he had woven his stories around the main there only. He did not go astray nor did he sound irrelevant at any time in his hour and a half speech. The anecdotes that he narrated were from the soil of Gujarat and pointed to the down to earth purpose of the talk. The real life story of Jesuben Ka Pizza as opposed to the fictitious story of Kalavati that his arch rival had narrated and thus had brought himself in the line of fire of his critics, was appreciated by one and all. The stories of how Narendra bhai created a place for the women folk in the financial system went well with the audience. These were real life stories and sounded as such. No one raised an accusing finger at them then or later.
The entire speech can be viewed here:
Humour played an important role in Modi’s address and the audience loved it. Of course, the Congress party was directly being criticized and the ignorant 42-year old young man who is not yet a grown up man bore the brunt in absentia. Chief Minister Modi chose not to spare his state’s governor, Kamla Beniwal, for her constitutional impropriety in sitting over a women’s 50 per cent representation in all elected bodies of the state despite its having been passed by the state legislature with a thumping majority. Modi had an appreciative audience and won bouquets as the man who led a charge for women’s political empowerment but it is a woman governor of the Congress party that has been playing the villain all along.
Peals of laughter of the woman folk could be heard every now and then. When Modi ji volunteered to have a break to enable the women entrepreneurs go out for lunch, there was a loud NO to the proposal and the vast audience wished to sit through without taking lunch. When the speaker said that he could go on and on since his next engagement was scheduled for four pm, the women entrepreneurs took it with wit and indicated their wish to continue listening to Narendra bhai as long as he wished to speak. Never a dull moment right from the word GO and until the celebrated Speaker thanked the audience for coming and also for their patience. All said and done, it was a good show and was enjoyable indeed.