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Leading industrialist Dr B.K. Modi, a former senior leader of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP), on Monday met Mr Narendra Modi and said the scheduled Lok Sabha poll in 2014 could well turn out to be a contest between the Gujarat Chief Minister and the AICC general secretary Rahul Gandhi, both of whom are tech-savvy.
“Anyone who is not Internet-savvy will not be able to lead India,” he said.
Earlier in the day, Dr Modi met the Chief Minister at the latter's “invitation” on the last day of his three-day ‘Sadbhavna Mission', a fast aimed at fostering goodwill between communities.
“I impressed upon Mr Modi to ensure that Internet becomes available to all children over eight years of age,” Dr Modi said. In a candid talk with reporters after launch of his company's new product MiTab, Dr Modi said that with India's emerging economic clout, both Mr Narendra Modi and Mr Rahul Gandhi have the potential to emerge as “world leaders”.
“They are no longer candidates for the Indian Prime Ministership alone. They should position themselves as global leaders.People in the “i2i” countries – the area between Indonesia and Ivory Coast – who are wary of both China and the US, may look to these Indian leaders with hope,” Dr Modi said.
Clarifying that he does not support Mr Narendra Modi — “I am only a businessman”— Dr Modi said if he were to go to the Congress, he would directly approach Mr Rahul Gandhi.
Asked about the ‘Sadbhavna Mission' of the Gujarat Chief Minister, he said the fast has “no meaning” by itself unless it is used by Mr Narendra Modi to emerge as a “world leader.”
“Since she was born outside India, Mrs Sonia Gandhi was not acceptable as India's Prime Minister, and had to drive from the back seat. But Rahul is Indian born and has now come to drive the Congress from the front seat. Now, the BJP has to select its candidate,” Dr Modi said.
Referring to Mr Barack Obama using the mobile phone technology to emerge as the strongest candidate in the US election in 2008, he said the future Indian PM will be the one who could lead the masses, 65 per cent of whom are youth.
He supported the Anna Hazare campaign to eradicate corruption and said even this movement was catapulted by the extensive use of SMSes. “The SMS Revolution is now being replaced by the Internet revolution.”
Dr Modi said that the outside world already sees the “big fight” between Mr Narendra Modi and Mr Rahul Gandhi the way the Obama fight was seen outside America as the one between the Whites and the Blacks, as the people could easily relate to the candidates.
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