New Delhi: BJP president Jagat Prakash Nadda has asked newly appointed party functionaries to exercise restraint while speaking in public and present the party’s stand firmly but politely. This is in contrast to the times when leaders were asked to “loud” while defending the party’s stand or attacking Opposition leaders and policies.
Nadda, who had announced his new team on 26 September, met the majority of the 70 new appointed central party functionaries who included national vice presidents, general secretaries and spokespersons at the party’s office at Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Marg and spoke to them, among other topics, on how to present themselves while speaking in the public to share the party’s position.
A party general secretary told The Sunday Guardian that Nadda, who is seen as a soft-spoken leader, was assertive during their interaction and mingled with party leaders without caring for the “pecking” order. Nadda, when he had visited his alma-mater Patna University in 2019 after taking over as the working president of the party, had interacted with his old friends and university officials, without bothering about protocol.
“The party president made us feel comfortable. Some of us were meeting him in an ‘exclusive’ environment, where a one-to-one interacting was taking place, for the first time. The image that some of us have formed about him is that he is open to inputs and will not mind if we give him our frank assessment,” a senior party leader said.
According to another party functionary, Nadda reiterated that the party functionaries have to focus on their public conduct and always be polite and civilised while interacting in a public forum.
“He repeated it multiple times that we need to be polite and act in a dignified manner while speaking at various fora. This was more important for the party spokesperson as they are seen as the face of the party and play an important role in forming its image,” another young party functionary said while recalling his interaction.
Nadda’s team has appointed 23 national spokespersons, including veterans like Nalin Kohli, Rajiv Pratap Rudy, Sudhanshu Trivedi and young faces like Guru Prakash.
It is pertinent to mention that last year, party MLA from Indore, Akash Vijayvargiya, who was caught on camera while thrashing a government employee with a bat, had severely dented the image of the party which has been focusing on clean politics. Later, an irked Prime Minister Narendra Modi had condemned the action of Akash Vijayvargiya, effectively shutting doors to any political promotion for him in the near future. Akash Vijayvargiya is the son of party general secretary Kailash Vijayvargiya.