Dear friends,

While taking over as National President of the BJP, I had said that NATION FIRST, PARTY NEXT and SELF LAST has been, and will continue to be, our guiding principle. I urge all my party men not only to follow it but also to understand that this approach alone will make the BJP a better instrument of nation-building. Remember that nationalism is our inspiration, development through good governance for Antyodaya, our ultimate goal.

The first and foremost task in correcting India’s development imbalance is to follow the principle of Antyodaya, which stands for ― eradication of abject poverty, provision of the basic necessities of every Indian family, and ensuring that the last man in society gets the first opportunity to rise in life. This is what Swami Vivekananda, Mahatma Gandhi, Deendayal Upadhyaya and other saintly figures in India had emphasized.

We have recently launched an innovative campaign namely Antyodaya Abhiyan. Let me share with you some facts about it. This campaign promotes politics for development through social work. We want all our party workers, our organisational units as well as all our elected representatives, at every level, to take up at least one service (SEWA) and development (VIKAS) project in their respective areas. Through this our workers should try and reach out effectively to the disadvantaged.

It has always been our thinking that politics is the instrument for social and economic transformation. We all are now expected to make a resolve and reinstate the element of sewa in the political culture of this great nation.
If you make a determined effort, you can easily take up such activities and derive satisfaction of serving the last person in the queue. We will soon have a proper mechanism set up within the party to train our workers, to guide them and to monitor their work. A monograph outlining the concept and methodology of Antyodaya Abhiyan is being published. We had also put up an exhibition of some illustrative sewa projects at the venue of our recently concluded National Council meeting at Indore.

The key to Antyodaya at the public policy level is in enabling the economy to produce gainful and sustainable livelihoods. In the Indian context, it means that the test of success of economic growth is whether our agriculture and rural economy are so revitalized that productive employment and high quality of life are ensured in rural areas. We must admit that India has not passed this test. The huge and rapidly growing divide between cities and villages, and also the disparities within cities and villages, is a matter of concern.

Let me extend a very earnest appeal to all party workers to think of at least one Sewa and Vikas activity. From running a Free Legal Aid centre to organising Polio Immunization camp and from checking school drop-out rates to forming self help groups for women, innumerable areas are waiting for well meaning, patriotic and socially motivated individuals to come forward and provide action-oriented leadership.

 I request you to kindly get going on this path.