Amith Shah ji 40 years in Public Life A Journey from Booth karyakarta to Union Home Minister A sift through the pages of the BJP’s history ...
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| Amith Shah ji |
40 years in Public Life
A Journey from Booth karyakarta to Union Home Minister
A sift through the pages of the BJP’s history may lead one to the fact that the party rewards its loyal and hardworking karyakartas. In Amit Shah who dedicated four decades of his life to its service, the BJP found one. His meteoric rise from being a booth karyakarta in the arid plains of Gujarat to the highest echelons of power as the Union Minister of Home - is a gripping tale in itself. It is a tale of willing sacrifice and tireless service for the party and its ideology.
His journey on the path of service began quite early at the age of 13. It was 1977, a year in which India’s politics was going through a ferment and turmoil. A new powerful anti-Congress sentiment was building up. During these turbulent times, the young Amit Shah was seen running from one lane to another putting up posters and stickers of Maniben Patel, a Jan Sangh candidate and daughter of Sardar Vallabh Bhai Patel. Quick to spot the fire within him the RSS took him under its wings. It was in the RSS, Amit Shah met his mentor, Shri Narendra Modi, an ascetic volunteer of the Sangh who too had chosen the thorn-ridden path of selfless service to nation-building, long before he did.
By that time, the Ram Janambhoomi Movement picked momentum in Gujarat. As the in-charge of Ahmedabad city in Gujarat of the fledgling party, he mobilized a sea of crowds in support of the Ekta Yatra and ensuing movement. In the aftermath of the movement, Amit Shah was asked by the party to manage the election campaign for BJP leader Shri L.K. Advani from the Ahmedabad constituency, a responsibility he shouldered till 2009. He also was the election manager of the former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee when he contested from the Gandhinagar constituency.
On account of his unwavering commitment to the party and an unceasing spirit to work for it, Amit Shah’s career graph soared through the ranks like Secretary of the Ahmedabad City BJP, National Treasurer of the Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha, and Gujarat state secretary of the BJP. In 1999, he was made the State Vice-President of the Gujarat BJP.
Shri Shah also walked on the parallel trail of electoral politics. He won one after another election as an MLA from 1997 to 2017. In 2017, he was elected as a member of the Rajya Sabha from Gujarat and in 2019 to the Lok Sabha from the Gandhinagar constituency of his home state.
Under the guidance of the then Chief Minister Narendra Modi, an ace administrator Amit Shah left an indelible mark as a minister of Home, Transport, Prohibition, Parliamentary Affairs, Law, and Excise.
A versatile change-maker Amit Shah also engineered the revival of two moribund cooperative banks. During his chairmanship, the profits of the Gujarat State Financial Corporation rose 214%, and also successfully launched its IPO.
Paving his way to national politics a year before the 2014 Lok Sabha Polls, Amit Shah was chosen as the National General Secretary of the party and was made in-charge of Uttar Pradesh. With the Prime Ministerial candidate Narendra Modi’s soaring popularity among the masses and Shah’s deft handling of political affairs, the party won 73 out of 80 seats in the state contributing decisively to the BJP’s nationwide victory. In recognition of his contribution to the party’s victory in the 2014 Lok Sabha polls, he was made the Party’s National President in the same year. After he was re-elected to the same post in 2016, the magic of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Amit Shah’s skills ensured another landslide victory for the party in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls.
An avid sports administrator Amit Shah helmed the Ahmedabad Central Board of Cricket Association, Gujarat State Cricket Association, and Gujarat Chess Association. With the advice of the then Chief Minister Narendra Modi, he also introduced chess in schools of Ahmedabad much to the benefit of the children.
On taking oath as the Union Minister of Home, Amit Shah brought about revolutionary changes in the way of functioning of the ministry and ensured peace and stability in Jammu and Kashmir, Northeast and leftwing extremism affected areas – three of the long-disturbed regions in India. In the first three years of his tenure, drug seizure and arrests of drug traders in India saw a manifold increase.
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| Amith Shah ji |
People’s Person
Some political pundits say that leaders are born while others are of the view that they are created by the circumstances they find themselves in. But Amit Shah is a leader who has been hailed as one created by the masses themselves. And this is one of the reasons why he has never lost an election. Right from the initial days of his career as a candidate of the BJP, resounding victory has been his norm. Very often he throws a surprise by winning elections with a margin wider than those in previous ones.
An electrifying connection with the people and an uncanny ability to understand their problems are the factors that make him a person of the common folks. His connection with the masses is attributed to his focused approach toward his responsibilities as a public representative. Shri Shah created a lush green cover in his assembly constituency at a time when no one was talking about environment protection. Keeping an eye on even the smallest needs of the people he constructed a crematorium and an effective drainage system there.
Unsurprisingly, when Amit Shah is entrusted with the role of an election campaigner, it results in a groundswell of support; when he is given the role of a party leader, he establishes a close and lasting connection with its members creating a well-oiled election machinery.
His journey in electoral politics had a humble beginning as a booth manager in the Naranpura ward in Ahmedabad. However, in the year 1997, he bagged the first opportunity to take a flier on electoral politics himself. He was nominated as the BJP candidate for the Sarkhej Assembly segment bye-polls in Gujarat. He won with a margin of 24,689 votes. He won every subsequent election with a bigger number of votes. He expanded his winning margin up to 1,32,477 votes in his second election which was a five-fold increase from his maiden victory. He won his third and fourth terms with record margins of 288,327 and 232,823 votes respectively. After delimitation, his constituency was Naranpura. Even though the number of voters here was one-fourth of his previous constituency, he won with a margin of 63,235 votes. He created a record by winning the Gandhinagar constituency in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls with a margin of 5.57 lakh votes.
Facilitator of Change
If there is any word that aptly describes Amit Shah’s political persona then it is- Disruptor. His counter-intuitive ways of taking on the might of the problems give him this credit.
As the Union Minister of Home
To ensure peace and stability in Kashmir he chose the path of abrogating Article 370 under the guidance of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Similarly, a series of peace accords with the insurgent groups were struck in the Northeast.
The upshot was, Jammu and Kashmir showed a 32% decrease in terror incidents, a 14% decrease in the death of civilians, a 52% decrease in the death of security personnel, and a 14% decrease in terrorist recruitments in the very first three years of his tenure as the Home Minister. In the first three years of his tenure, Northeast India has seen a 68% decrease in terror incidents, a 60% decrease in the death of security personnel, and an 83% decrease in the death of civilians.
A comparative analysis of data from three years of Amit Shah’s tenure as the Home Minister and that from the Congress regime showed that in the period of 2009 to 2012, during the Congress rule, the total quantity of drugs seized by the agencies was only 13,54,546 Kgs and they valued at Rs.14018 crores. However, due to the introduction of cutting-edge technology and immaculate professionalism in narco-investigations under the guidance of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the same numbers shot up to 39,08783 Kgs and Rs.61125 crores in the period of first three years of Amit Shah as the Home Minister.
Amit Shah’s role as the Union Minister of Home Affairs has primarily remained dedicated to creating a bulwark of security for the common man. Under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, his deft handling of tricky situations resulted in a drastic dip in Left Wing Extremism. He is credited with the feat of ending the insurgency in Tripura without spending a single bullet while ushering in peace in the Bodoland area without disturbing the geographical integrity of Assam. He also ensured the settling of Bru-Reang refugees and thus put an end to one of the threats to India’s internal security.
As the Union Minister of Cooperation
He assumed charge of the Ministry of Cooperation in 2021, the same year in which it was created. Soon after taking charge, with the call of “Sahakar se Samriddhi” made by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, major policy decisions to enable a structured evolution of the sector to a glitzy corporate one were rolled out. Now the cooperative sugar mills have been exempted from paying additional income tax if they have to pay additional cane prices to the farmers as Fair Remunerative Prices or State Advice Prices. The individual housing loan limit for urban cooperative banks has been doubled. The rural Co-operative Banks are now permitted to lend to Commercial Real Estate - Residential Sector. Even Urban cooperative banks have been allowed to provide doorstep banking to their customers at par with commercial banks. Under the new regime, non-scheduled urban co-operative banks (NSUCBs), state co-operative banks, and district central co-operative banks are member lending institutions (MLIs) under a scheme that provides a guarantee for the collateral-free loans given to micro and small enterprises.
As a Minister in Gujarat
As the Home Minister of Gujarat, Amit Shah under the guidance of the then Chief Minister Narendra Modi had the responsibility of the security of the state. Shah built the world’s first forensic university during his tenure and strengthened international border security by introducing coastal police. In addition to it, he took several initiatives to strengthen law & order and to modernize the police. As a recognition of his skills as the home minister, National Crime Records Bureau declared Gujarat as the most peaceful state in terms of labor and industrial sector.
As Loksabha M.P.
Shri Shah’s life journey is replete with examples of his innovative approach to issues, lateral thinking to solve the same, and futuristic planning to avoid recurrence. His stint as a Lok Sabha member is no exception.
Be it the construction of an array of five world-class stadiums to nurture sports talent or connecting the ponds with a water reservoir to ensure optimum usage of natural resources- the markers of his unique working style are now seen in the socio-economic and the cultural life of his constituency Gandhinagar.
His futuristic approach to social transformation can be sensed in the scheme launched by him to distribute nutritious food supplements to pregnant women to ensure the birth of healthy children. Toy banks created by him in his constituency for children from poor families and his introduction of the ‘Bhajan Mandali’ to distract youth and adolescents from the harmful means of entertainment, signify his counter-intuitive approach to identifying and solving socio-cultural problems.
It is a trademark working style of Amit Shah to walk far past his mandate as a public representative to serve the people, an approach evident in his schemes like free food to the attendants in the hospitals and special bank accounts to ensure a better future for the girl child.
A Firm Believer in Indian Culture & Ethos
Amit Shah was not sent to a regular school by his parents. Rather he received his early education in 'Indian Value Tradition' under the supervision of prominent scholars of the Gaikwad State. He was taught Indian scriptures, historical texts, grammar, and epics in his childhood. His early exposure to the Indian value system, not only instilled deep faith in Indian culture in him but also helped him establish a permanent connection with the masses. He grew up as a person inclined towards philosophy and spirituality, who even today immerses himself in books on Indian culture, philosophy, and mythology. His love for reading is well reflected in his initiative to begin a library movement to promote the reading of books on Indian thought in the BJP, when he was the party, President.
His experience in the RSS only cemented his belief in Indian culture which manifests itself in his endeavors to promote Indian languages and cultural nationalism across ranks and files of the party. Even as he shares the dais as one of the trustees of the Somnath temple trust, with Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP veteran L.K Advani, he also promotes the philosophy of Antyodaya in the party and among the masses. Shah firmly believes that successive governments in independent India failed to recognize and use the inner strengths of India’s very own traditional knowledge and ethos for the country’s development. But since 2014 under the leadership of PM Modi, gradually India is being brought on the right track and that is the reason we are well on the path to becoming great again.
During his tours, Shah always visits temples, cultural symbols, and places connected with historical personalities. Shah regularly speaks at events honoring and commemorating great Indian personalities. His scholarly and well-documented speeches on Adi Shankaracharya, Chanakya, Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj, Veer Savarkar, Dr. Syama Prasad Mookerjee, Pt. Deendayal Upadhyaya, etc mark his knowledge and also his commitment to the principles upheld by these great personalities.
Organization Builder & Ace Election Strategist
Organization Builder
At 49, Shah was the youngest National President of the BJP. Under the able leadership of PM Modi, Shah is credited with the feat of giving a true pan-Indian face to the BJP not only in terms of organizational expansion but also taking the party’s electoral footprint to new territories. In a bid to achieve this feat, he took the pains to travel 10,23,867 kilometers across the nation.
He led the BJP to become the biggest party in the world by increasing its member count from 2.47 crores to 11.2 crores. Working with the principle of “Karya Sanskriti Wahi Karya Paddhati Nayi” (The same work culture but with a modern method), Shah took several initiatives to modernize the party. The three pillars of the BJP as an organization- Karyalay (office), Baithak (meetings), and Pravas (tour), were central to his organizational strategy. He pledged to build BJP offices in all the districts of India, pushed for regular meetings, and introduced innovative methods of tours. Shah also focused on reading by mandating libraries in all offices and holding regular programs at the booth level to strengthen the ideological moorings of the BJP karyakartas.
A prudent Shah understood that exposure to power may lead to the weakening of an organization, on account of the distance it tends to create between leaders and karyakartas. To prevent this from happening Shah designed “Vistrit Pravas (extensive tour)” and visited all the states in a short span of time. The focus of these intensive tours was to spread the party ideology, educate the karyakartas about the pro-people initiatives of the Modi government and strengthen the party structure at the grassroots. The BJP’s national president sharing the dais with the presidents of the state, district, and booth chapters of the party was the hallmark of this tour. This move of breaking the traditional barriers of the party hierarchy, that perhaps happened for the first time on the floor of a political outfit in independent India, - awed political observers of all hues.
An Ace Election Strategist
In Gujarat Shah always played an important role in consecutive electoral victories of the BJP under the leadership of the then Chief Minister Narendra Modi. However, on the national scenario, he emerged as a master election strategist during the 2014 Lok Sabha election when he spearheaded the BJP’s revival leading to the party’s historic performance in Uttar Pradesh. NDA won 73 out of 80 Lok Sabha seats and increased its vote share from 15% to 42%.
After taking over as the national president of the BJP immediately after the 2014 general election, Shah used the growing popularity of Prime Minister Modi not only to electorally strengthen the BJP in its traditional territories but also to expand its electoral footprint in new territories. During Shah’s tenure, BJP for the first time got its chief ministers in Haryana, Tripura, Assam, Maharashtra, and Manipur and seated a deputy chief minister in Jammu & Kashmir. BJP also became a part of the ruling alliances in Meghalaya, Nagaland, and Sikkim. Shah’s masterstrokes took Modi‘s charisma to the states like Odisha, West Bengal, and Telangana and the BJP became the main opposition party overnight opening doors for future expansion. After losses in the 2018 assembly election in Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, and Chhattisgarh, the BJP cadres were demoralized. On 11 January 2019, in the national council meeting of the BJP in Delhi, Shah compared the 2019 loksabha election with the “3rd battle of Panipat” and reminded the karyakartas that this election will be a battle of two ideologies. His war cry revived the enthusiasm of the karyakartas. BJP emerged with a bigger mandate by winning 303 seats in this election.
The core of Shah’s electoral strategy lies in strengthening polling booths, striking alliances, roping in influential leaders from other parties and most importantly taking PM Modi’s persona to the people. With the call of “mera booth sabse majboot (my booth strongest)”, Shah launched the “Vistarak Program” focused on creating a team of booth karyakartas through volunteers. He himself worked as a ‘Vistarak’ in the states of West Bengal, Odisha, Telangana, Lakshadweep, and Gujarat. Shah roped in smaller parties extending the NDA- and gave wider social and regional representation thus boosting electoral prospects. Shah also designed and implemented several party programs to popularize the good works of the Modi government.
As a Sports Enthusiast
An avid chess player and a sports enthusiast, Amit Shah under the guidance of the then Chief Minister Narendra Modi got chess included in the school curriculum and also won a place in the Guinness Book of World Records and the Limca Book by organizing unique chess competitions. As a cricket administrator, Shah took several steps to improve sports infrastructure and secure the future of the players.
As a Pioneer of the Cooperative Sector in Gujarat
Shah’s deep understanding of cooperative movement was recognized a long ago when he was the national coordinator of BJP’s cooperative cell in 2001. Prior to his emergence, the Congress party dominated the cooperative politics of Gujarat. But Shah under the leadership of Modi turned it around and now the entire cooperative sector is in command of the BJP. He also is also credited with the revival of two dying banks –Ahmedabad District Cooperative Bank and Madhavpura Bank Ahmedabad. Now in a very short span of time as Union Cooperation Minister, Shah has brought the sector into the mainstream of national discourse by introducing several new schemes and piloting legislations in the parliament. It is his effort and the blessings of PM Modi that “Sahakar se Samriddhi” has become a buzz word in the economic planning and progress of India.
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