Narendra Modi (on right) with Niranjan Jain at
Jain’s Atlanta residence, 1997.
While many are aware of how the U.S. denied a
visa to Narendra Modi in 2005, it is less known that
prior to that infamous incident, Modi had already
travelled to the U.S.—thrice.
In 1997, during Modi’s second visit to the States,
Atlanta resident Niranjan Jain had the privilege of
hosting the man who would go on to become India’s
15th Prime Minister. During those days, Modi was
one of the four National Secretaries of the Bharatiya
Janata Party (BJP). He was an up-and-coming functionary
within his political party, but by no means
well-known. Remembering the two-day visit, Jain
says, “Since my wife and son were in India, I was
alone at the time. I cooked some vegetarian dishes for
him. I never imagined he would become the Prime
Minister of India one day. It was a rare honour to have
hosted him.”
Speaking at the event hosted by Gokul Kunnath (who is seated, far right).
Interestingly enough, when Modi was his guest,
Jain had no prior acquaintance with him. How then
did he end up hosting him? For that, the credit goes
to Gokul Kunnath, founder of the Hindu Student
Council (HSC) in the U.S., the first campus-based
Hindu organization founded outside of India.
During his days in India, Kunnath was also a volunteer
with the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS).
He had
been acquainted
with Modi
since 1987 when
he first met the latter
in New Delhi at an Intellectual’s Meet organized by
the RSS. “My first impression of him was that he was
a person who thought outside the box. I could see a
restless mind and a sharp intellect that were miles
ahead of his peers,” said Kunnath of Modi, who was
seated next to him at the event, and who, at the
time, was the organizing secretary of the Gujarat unit
of the BJP.
Since 1997 was the 50th year of India’s independence,
HSC decided to celebrate the occasion in a big
way all across the U.S. and Canada under the banner
of “Freedom Festival.” As part of the celebrations, HSC
organized seminars, conferences, camps, and an
exhibition of India’s history and contributions. Kunnath,
who was well connected with the leadership
of RSS and BJP, and had managed to invite their top
brass (including former Prime Minister Atal Bihari
Vajpayee) to Atlanta, extended an invitation to Narendra
Modi to attend the Freedom Festival as a special guest. “His patriotism and love for the ideals of
Swami Vivekananda was unparalleled. He was also
very down to earth and close to the RSS culture in thought and action. As an RSS Swayamsevak myself, I felt at home in his company,” says Kunnath,
expounding on his choice of Modi as the special
guest for the special event.
Whenever he had such guests in town, Kunnath sought to make productive connections for
the guests with like-minded locals. Since Niranjan
Jain had just accepted the responsibility of being
the President of Vishwa Hindu Parishad’s Atlanta
Chapter, he asked Jain if he would like to host Modi
at his house.
During his short visit, Modi made several stops
as a visiting official. At the Gurudwara in Stone Mountain, he made a speech that many found electrifying. The Greater Atlanta Vedic Temple in
Lilburn and the BAPS Swaminarayan Temple,
which in those days was in Clarkston, were a couple more of the stops in his itinerary.
Atlanta’s
Dr. Vasudev Patel and family with Chief Minister Narendra Modi at his office in
Gandhinagar, Gujarat.
Dr. Vasudev Patel, President of Gujarati Samaj
of Atlanta and coordinator of Overseas Friends of
the BJP, is another Atlantan with ties to Prime
Minister Modi. His personal acquaintance with
him began in 1980 when Dr. Patel attended an RSS summer camp, where Modi, a few years senior to
him, was a teacher. Thanks to Dr. Patel’s father,
who was a state leader of the Jan Sangh in Gujarat,
he had several opportunities to meet Modi, who,
in those days, was just another cog in the large
organization. However, there was something about
him that was hard to miss. “I was impressed with
his organizing skill, oratory, and poetry, all of which
were evident even in those early days,” says Dr.
Patel.The doctor, a scientist in the field of forensic
toxicology, likes to quip that Modi may be the only
Prime Minister of India who may have traveled in
the subway trains of New York City. During Modi’s
first visit to the U.S. in 1993, Dr. Patel—who at that
time lived in New York—had traveled with him
on these trains, and now cherishes those memories of having spent one-on-one time with someone
who would go on to become a political leader of
staggering proportions.
Dr. Patel is appreciative that Modi’s success had
not affected his accessibility. In 2003, when Modi was the embroiled Chief Minister of Gujarat, Dr. Patel
called his office during one of his visits to India,
seeking an appointment for a social visit. To his surprise, he received a call back from his office in 30
minutes confirming a time for the visit.
The high regard that Dr. Patel holds for Modi led
to his taking time off from work, like many other
NRIs, to travel to India and campaign for Modi. In the six weeks that he campaigned for his hero, Patel
addressed over 80 small and large town meetings in
Gujarat and Uttar Pradesh.
Not surprisingly, Patel believes that India has in
Narendra Modi its best Prime Minister thus far.