Vijay Rupani

"Narendrabhai used to give an hour long pravachan (discourse) on Mahatma Gandhi’s Vaishnav Jan bhajan as an integral part of training programs for party workers. He would tell us that a BJP karyakarta (worker) should be one who understands and feels the pain of others. A BJP karyakarta should work for the sukha (well-being) of all and feel the dukha (pain) of all. If we want people to trust political leaders, we have to work for the well-being of all segments of society. If BJP karyakartas lead by working for social good, it will strengthen our nation as well as our samaj (society).” It is an intrinsic part of his political vision that building the organisation and recruiting party workers is not enough; we must have the political maturity to carry the samaj with us. If I had kept detailed notes of those training sessions in which Narendrabhai galvanised party workers, that compendium would have become renowned as an authoritative text on Sangathan Shastra (Treatise on Building Organisations). For instance, he would emphasise the mantra: Pratyek karyakarta ke liye kaam aur pratyek kaam ke liye karyakarta. (For every task, there must be a responsible party worker, and for every party worker, there must be identifiable work). Secondly, he taught us that without a sense of purpose, a sense of larger mission, a party worker becomes a cog in the wheel (uthak baithak ka hissa), performing routine tasks robotically. He was very effective in motivating BJP workers to do something meaningful for the country and for society. He paid a great deal of attention to creating good and honest workers. Most importantly, he paid minute attention to building systems."