UAE expat travelled across India to ride the Modi wave

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UAE expat travelled across India to ride the Modi wave

She covered 50,000km across 29 states and four union territories.

by

Ashwani Kumar

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Published: Sat 25 May 2019, 12:00 AM

Last updated: Sat 25 May 2019, 10:06 PM

The soul of India lives and breathes in her villages. The Narendra Modi-powered Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) understood this fact and in past four years improved road connectivity in rural areas, built bridges, offered sundry schemes to poor, who in turn voted for the government, said Abu Dhabi-based Sangeetha Sridhar, who went solo on eight-month Clean India Trail which concluded with start of the general election.
It was on August 12, 2018 that Sangeetha started her journey of 'realty check' from Mumbai. She covered 50,000km across 29 states and four union territories, audited 225 public toilets, visited 75 Make in India industries, 125 religious places, heritage sites, educational institutes and more during her sanitation drive. Even as she covered 135 cities, most of her time was spent in rural areas where she mingled with locals at tea shops and workplace to know more about their daily life and living.
Sangeetha said the work done by Minister of Road Transport and Highways Nitin Gadkari through National Highways Authority of India has won over the rural belt.
"Up to 60 per cent of my journey was through the rural areas. I wanted to connect with the local communities and chose my pit stops accordingly. I travelled through the entire length of the East-West corridor and saw lot of expansion in terms of road connectivity. Commute had improved extensively, especially in the north-eastern areas where people were very happy. Construction of lot of bridges had been done at accelerated pace. The National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) has played key role in this sort of mandate from the rural areas. Road connectivity projects have been a grand success thanks to direct involvement of the Minister of Road Transport and Highways in terms of tangible number of km added per day. Daily monitoring of projects had paid off."
In 2014, the BJP had won 178 out of 282 seats in rural areas. The split of this year's election isn't known so far but the BJP believed that development in villages is through the roads and succeeded with its initiatives.
'Rural schemes clicked with the poor' 
Sangeetha said against popular perception job creation schemes - informal and self-employment - had clicked with rural populace. "In various infrastructure development projects, the workforce was locally sourced. I had seen large number of women in jobs through such projects. This made a big difference. Women had an option to work, keep her kids around, and bring them back by evening. It became a strong value-addition to the household income."
Even as health centres in smaller and remote areas need a lot of development, Sangeetha said road connectivity to cities again helped to appease voters. "The fact that villagers were able to commute to the nearest cities and access medical facilities compensated for lack of health facilities in a big way. Road connectivity is shining star of results seen from rural India. Villages are connected with roads which weren't there and bridges completed during past four years."
Sangeetha noted projects like Swachh Bharat Mission, Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana etc were all well implemented and received by the masses. "Clean India is one project which has been executed very well. People in rural areas felt a need for having a clean neighbourhood and having access to toilets. People felt they had been offered better lifestyle in a healthy atmosphere. There was also programme for primary education, provision of loans to low-income farmers and development of small-scale industries.
They had subsidies and implementation through gram panchayat was also effective. People felt local representatives could be reached."
'Right selection of candidates' 
She said that while travelling throughout the length of the country one aspect that stood out was selection of candidates.
"The second-tier of the BJP leaders did well in finding local candidates who were aware of issues that affected the villagers. In my intensive journey, I witnessed wherever local candidates had worked in last four to five years, they were welcomed by common people. It is all about the candidates' contribution to the community as their representative. The verdict isn't result of a one-man show but a wholesome effort by the BJP which has worked as a team at the ground level to make a difference. And people knew that lot more changes could come if an extended term was given to the BJP. This is the reason for such a landslide victory which will enable the BJP to continue progress and projects. This term is very crucial for the BJP to get concrete results in sectors like industry, education and create jobs, and eliminate corruption. People expect tangible results."
'BJP leaders showed intent'
Sangeetha also highlighted the fact that the BJP excelled in getting the message across to people on work done by the party.
"The BJP led by their iconic leader have expressed their intent and need for another term to show tangible results was received well at the ground level. A common man understood that the government needed more time to usher change as status quo may change if they give a jolting change to the management. Farmers told me that there was no benefit with a change in the government and the BJP deserved another chance.
The BJP has thus got more time. Speaking to people in rural areas one thing was clear that they were aware about the intentions of the local and central leaders. People wanted to be part of that supporting structure instead of nerdy changes. The attitude was 'Modi is trying to do something so why not support him'," Sangeetha said from the US, where she is on a 10-day, 7,000km trail across the 12 states to spread awareness about cleanliness, sanitation and safety.
ashwani@khaleejtimes.com


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