An Untold Story of Youth Power: NaMo Brigade
[dropcap color=”#008040″ boxed=”yes” boxed_radius=”8px” class=”” id=””]T[/dropcap]his Loksabha election is not just about a fight between political parties but it is fought between evil and the good, fight between the daring individual and dynasty politics. A ray of hope to thousands of budding politicians. It is a test of patriotism. It is about making Common Man’s dream come true. It is about millions of youths who are working towards to make 272+ possible without any expectations. It is about accomplishing the dreams of India 2020.Many states have already fought the battle and results are awaited. Recently Karnataka went to polls and now it’s time for political pundits to predict the mood of the state. Anyway, everyone will have their answers next month by this time. First ever BJP government of south India was a big flop. Not because the state has not progressed under BJP (at least the progress was better than now), but what bothered the most was internal fights, the ego of some of the so-called national leaders and immaturity (but never gave up in 49 days!!!). people were fed up of all these, they just wanted to change the government and the only option left was to fall back to self-declared seculars, congress. All these factors have made BJP a weak opponent in Loksabha polls. With all these exceptions, BJP made some space and is expected to sweep around 15-20 seats. NaMoBrigade played a major role in helping BJP to rise from the ashes like a phoenix in Karnataka.
Over 3 lakhs volunteers got registered by giving missed call within 24 hrs of launch. Due to lack of funds registration through missed call had been cancelled.
NaMobrigade works for the mission “Narendra Modi for PM”. It was started to create awareness about NaMo in Karnataka and thereby helping BJP to win maximum seats. The end of the NaMoBrigade was decided the day it was started. It will be dissolved as soon as NaMo takes oath as PM. Now NaMobrigade is a household name in Karnataka and it has got 300+ branches throughout the country. But like many other organizations, the brigade also has an untold story. I feel it is worth telling the success story of the team before it is buried in the political history.
It was all started with a Bangalore-based facebook page, “Narendra Modi fans: Karnataka”. It was just a page and never had any intension of getting into ground work. Inspired by development work of Narendra Modi, Chethan Kumar along with his friend Srikanth Huddar has started the page in November 2012, to create awareness among the people of Karnataka about Gujarat’s progress under Modi. Meanwhile, pre –poll survey of Assembly elections indicated that BJP may get 60-70 seats but BJP managed to get only 40 seats which were far worse than the survey results. Based on Assembly election result another survey was done in which BJP was expected to get only 2-3 seats in LS election. Karnataka vidhana sabha elections result was a nightmare for BJP and with only a year left to Loksabha elections, this was not at all a good news for anyone who wished to see Modi as PM. So these guys have realized that there is much more to be done than just hitting the keyboard in order to increase the contribution of Karnataka in making Prime Minister Modi. They decided to work as an alternative to BJP at ground level.
[dropcap color=”#008040″ boxed=”yes” boxed_radius=”8px” class=”” id=””]K[/dropcap]arnataka assembly election result was out on May 8th and on the same day “Narendra Modi fans: Karnataka” has posted a status calling out for volunteers from every district to work in ground level at 11.00 pm. Hundreds of messages poured into the inbox even after knowing that the volunteers will not be helped financially in anyway by next day morning. According to Chethan it was really a challenging moment for him because he himself never expected hundreds of youths will join him for the noble cause. Chethan consulted Shakuntala Iyer, Girdhar Upadhyaya and many others and requested for their support. He contacted many groups and discussed his plans but no one believed his plans as he wanted a parallel team to BJP which works for Namo. Finally, he was able to find one group who wanted to start Voter drive campaign in Bengaluru which was lead by Ramakrishna Kulkarni. A meeting was called on May 12th to discuss the future goals; the meeting was attended by only 5!! It was decided to name the organization as “NaMo Army”. On the Same day, NaMo Army started a blog for the online registration of volunteers through social media. NaMo army has met top BJP leaders to discuss the agenda of the organization but they didn’t get any support from the top guns. The group moved ahead without losing the heart. More than 20 members attended next meeting of NaMo Army. Volunteers from across the state who were working towards “NaMo for PM” came together under one roof. They dropped the name “NaMo Army” and renamed the organization as “NaMoBrigade”. NaMo Brigade launched its official website, www.namobrigade.in.
NaMo brigade is a live example, which started as a facebook page went on to become the household name in Karnataka. It is not just an organization it’s a political revolution.
NamoBrigade decided to kick start the activities from June 2013 but for some reason, it had to be delayed. By that time Mangalore-based businessman, Naresh Shenoy came in contact with the team which strengthened the team. On July 14th, 2013, NaMoBrigade officially started its operation by a small inauguration ceremony in Rastrothana, Jayanagar. On the same day, NaMoBrigade started registering volunteers through missed calls. Over 3 lakhs volunteers got registered by giving missed call within 24 hrs of launch. Due to lack of funds registration through missed call had been cancelled.
[dropcap color=”#008040″ boxed=”yes” boxed_radius=”8px” class=”” id=””]A[/dropcap]fter brigade officially started in Bangalore, it was time to start its branches in different parts of the state that include Jamakandi and Kolar. As decided earlier there were no ranks in the organization each and every one was considered a member who are working towards a single goal and brigade also heard to last man’s ideas. At the end of the day, it was a team of like-minded people who were up and working towards a single goal.
The team decided to form a working committee for communicating the activities of the brigade. Joining of Jago Bharat fame Chakravarthy Sulibele gave them strength, and in the meeting, it was requested to Chakravarty Sulibele to be the mentor of the team. Also Chethan named as Convenor for Brigade, but Chethan didn’t accept and he named Naresh Shenoy for that post, he wanted some elder person to be in that position, Chethan, who has button started the brigade was made co-conveyor, Ramakrishna Kulkarni, who worked at ground level from day one was another co-conveyor. Shakunthala Iyer, Neeraj Kamath, Bharath Suryaprakash, Lakshmish K.S, Rajesh Rao, Srikanth Huddar, Vasanth Kini were working committee members.
NaMo Brigade Activities
As NaMo always say “social media has lent voice to the common man and given him the opportunity to make his voice heard”. NaMo brigade is a live example, which started as a facebook page went on to become the household name in Karnataka. It is not just an organization it’s a political revolution. All credit of success goes to Narendra Modi, he is the real hero of the brigade. More than an individual, he is an ideology. He inspires youth and sows dreams in them.
[dropcap color=”#008040″ boxed=”yes” boxed_radius=”8px” class=”” id=””]I[/dropcap]f we look at the history of this country, there are Gandhis and Nehrus at all times but there were Boses and Savarkars too, who never was in the limelight. We have to learn from the past and come out of Gandhi-Nehru mentality. There are some unholy souls in NaMo brigade too who had personal agendas, they just used Namo brigade as a platform, spreading lies, creating myths the whole story was recreated by them, and that fake story was sent to Narendra Modi and Amit shah saying they were the creators of Namo Brigade. Chethan left the job and was a full timer for Namo Brigade which was followed by hundreds of youths in the state. It would be unfair if we don’t thank every Mr X of the brigade who worked sincerely.
Click here for more information on NaMo Brigade Activities
NaMo brigade has gone through many hardships; there are people who helped financially. Brigade will always remember their contribution. The success of NaMo brigade lies in the team work and an individual cannot claim it as theirs. Still, NaMo brigade has never failed to serve the nation, it always believes that this nation can one day be a world leader with the strong leadership of Narendra Modi and as of now only he can lead us to make India a prosperous country. Let the truth alone triumphs. Every pre-poll survey is in favour of NaMo, so it is time for every brigadier to celebrate the moment. It will remain as one of the best moments of our lifetime. Let’s all work towards bringing back the glory of this great country.
Note:
1. Text in Blue points to additional data on the topic.
2. The views expressed here are those of the author and do not necessarily represent or reflect the views of PGurus.
- Rise of NaMo Brigade- An Untold Story of Youth Power - April 29, 2017
Half truth and half baked story! not complete truth!