 "Vijay Chauthaiwale")
Prime Minister Narendra Modi hand-picked Vijay Chauthaiwale to be the pointsman for his outreach to the 28.4-million strong Indian diaspora. He is currently the head of both the Overseas Friends of Bharatiya Janata Party (OFBJP) and the foreign policy cell of the party. Chauthaiwale has a PhD in microbiology from Pune's National Chemical Laboratories and is a former vice-president (research and development) at Torrent Pharmaceuticals. He has also spent several years abroad. Chauthaiwale tells Archis Mohan how Modi's influence is helping unite the disparate diaspora outfits and about his own efforts in the last 10 months to clean the stables of the OFBJP.
The Prime Minister has been criticised for his frequent foreign visits. What have been the gains?
The Prime Minister has spent more or less the same number of days abroad as his predecessor. What he has done is to make his trips more visible, not only to the host country but also to Indians and that is causing some heartburn to our opponents. To answer this rhetorically, Rahul Gandhi must have spent more days abroad and no one knows where he was. Here the PM's every hour is accounted for and for the benefit of the country. That is the contrast.
The PM has set up high-level contacts with several countries that were ignored by previous regimes for decades. Strategically, the focus of the PM's foreign policy is on the neighbourhood and Pacific Rim countries. Third, of course is the economy. The PM is signing big commitments, like with China and the US. He is likely to visit another of India's major partner in November - the UK. He has been to the United Arab Emirates - one of India's largest trading partners. This will bring more investments into India and strengthen the economy. Last but not the least are our security concerns. The India-UAE joint statement has talked about counterterrorism openly. The national security advisors of the two countries are going to meet twice a year, which is unprecedented.
How has the outreach to the diaspora helped?
The diaspora was feeling alienated during the tenure of the previous regime. They were always thought to be money-minting machines by people here. Now, the PM is addressing them. This has sent a message that the PM cares for them and is concerned about their issues. The foremost example of this is the land for a temple in the UAE. It was a longstanding desire of the community there and it was resolved during the PM's visit to the UAE. These are small issues, emotive issues, but they add substantially to the comfort of the community.
Second, the Prime Minister's visits and his addresses to the diaspora have increased their stature in their own country, which is significant. I could see it in Canada, where elections are coming up in October: both the major political parties were racing to capture the votes of the Indian disapora in various ways - intermingling with them, attending our PM's functions and also attending religious ceremonies. This is because they have realised that wooing the Indian diaspora works in their favour politically.
Some critics say the diaspora is getting splintered along religious lines after the BJP intervened.
Exactly the reverse is happening. I have travelled for the preparations of the diaspora events. The first thing I tell everyone is not about the BJP or the OFBJP event, but about the entire community. I give that message loud and clear in the very first meeting with the diaspora outfits. This is followed by action. The organising committees, which we set up, consist of representatives from all communities - linguistic and professional groups of the diaspora. For example, the Bay area organising committee (for the PM's visit to the Silicon Valley in September-end) has people from all linguistic and religious communities as well as techies, businessmen and hoteliers. We have brought these professional groups together, which would otherwise rarely happen. Even in the UAE we had a substantial number of Muslims in our organising committee. You must have seen the sizeable presence of Muslims at the event where the PM addressed the diaspora in the UAE.
Diaspora outfits are known to have differences.
I agree. But the PM's persona goes beyond any community appeal, religious appeal or sectoral appeal. It also goes beyond the BJP's appeal. People are willing to come together in the name of the PM. It can happen only with Modi. When the larger goal is defined, people are willing to forget, at least temporarily, their differences. Otherwise, it is impossible to have 50,000 people gathering for the PM's speech in Dubai at a short notice of 10 days. More than 100 diaspora organisations attended the organising committee meetings in the UAE. There were some complaints when they started talking initially. The complaints were not regarding why the PM was visiting, but that they were informed late. We had very little time, so there were some communication gaps. They said, "Okay whatever is done is done, but now we are supporting the event." The PM's visits are becoming a great unifying force for the communities. Whether they can sustain it for a long period is a different issue, but at least there is some momentum now.
Is there a plan of action to consolidate these gains?
It is now the responsibility of the diaspora on one side and people like us on the other side to leverage the goodwill created by the PM. Soon, we will come up with some concrete plan of action, which will be pan-community and not confined to the OFBJP.
How does the OFBJP, which has played a lead role in managing the overseas tours of the PM, influence the foreign policy architecture?
I am clear about my role and my limitations. I am not here to define the foreign policy of India or that of the government. I am here to mobilise the diaspora and bring it to the next level where it can create a good impact on the issues that concern us or concern issues of the host country. To that extent, my role is limited. Actual foreign policy issues are being handled by the external affairs ministry. Of course, we have a dialogue. We give our inputs, like any citizen of the country. So, there is a demarcation of what I am supposed to do and I remain within those limits.
The OFBJP expanded enormously in the last few years, opening chapters in places with little presence of the Indian community and appointing convenors there who weren't exactly the most suitable ambassadors for the image of the party.
I won't make a statement about the people who preceded me (as head of OFBJP). To an extent, I agree that the OFBJP expansion was not supported by any concrete plan. I am trying to consolidate the overall OFBJP in a few places in my first year (as its head). At a couple of places, our convenors themselves came to me and said there was no work there, either because of the political situation in that country or because the community is very small or dispersed and therefore, they would like to dissolve that unit or they would like to resign. I have accepted (their decisions). They were graceful enough to accept their limitations. The next phase would be to make the OFBJP an advocacy arm of the PM's agenda of governance in the host country. That transition is currently taking place.
What are the major plans in the year ahead? There are reports of a speech even at the Wembley Stadium.
The PM is scheduled to spend a day and a half in the Bay area (San Francisco). The good part is that those days are on the weekend and are exclusively for us: non-diplomatic events and devoted to the diaspora. The star event will be the address at the SAP Centre in San Jose. Around 18,000 people will attend. More than 400 organisations have already registered for the event. There is also a plan to have some kind of meeting with the CEOs of all information technology companies. As for the UK, we are exploring certain things. Of course, Wembley is a big attraction and our confidence has gone up after the UAE event. But a lot will depend on scheduling of the visit and availability of the venue.
