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When Modi said ‘email’, a BJP leader asked 'what female': Shivraj Chouhan recalls a 1990s meeting at book launch
Modi understood back in the 1990s too that technology would be essential to a developed India, the agriculture minister said at launch of his book on the PM.
Union minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan launched his memoir about his experiences with Narendra Modi in New Delhi on Tuesday, offering a glimpse into his 35-year association with the Prime Minister, and one story in particular drew laughs — the day a roomful of BJP leaders had no idea what an email ID was.
Speaking at the book launch, Chouhan recalled an early meeting in Madhya Pradesh, purportedly in the 1990s, when Narendra Modi had visited the state as the party's state affairs in-charge.
Anecdote on tech-savvy Modi
A gathering had been called to prepare for elections, and Modi turned to the room and asked a simple question, 'who has an email ID?', said Chouhan.
The response was silence, said the former Madhya Pradesh CM. “People started looking at each other's faces.”
Then the late Babulal Gaur, who would go on to become CM, broke the quiet with: “Narendra bhai, what ‘female female’ are you talking about? What's going to happen with this female-email?” Gaur had apparently misheard — or likely never encountered — the word “email”. Gaur laughed, as did some others, Chouhan said.
The moment, however, was less about the comedy and more about what it revealed of Modi, according to Chouhan. At a time when mobile phones were considered a marker of "five-star culture" in BJP circles, and when technology was viewed with suspicion by party workers steeped in a more traditional political culture, Modi was already asking his colleagues to get email IDs, Chouhan noted.
He understood, Chouhan said, that technology would be essential to building a developed India. "He could see far ahead and work to make arrangements ahead of time," the agriculture minister said. He also spoke about Modi using computers during that time.
What memoir traces
‘Apnapan: Narendra Modi Sang Mere Anubhav’ (originally in Hindi, title may be translated to ‘Affection: My Experiences with Narendra Modi’) traces the two leaders' journey from their early days as BJP workers to their current roles in the Union government.
Chouhan said his association with Modi goes back to 1991, when the two worked together on the ‘Ekta Yatra’, a cross-country march led by senior BJP leader Murli Manohar Joshi, stretching from Kanyakumari to Srinagar. Modi was managing the tour; Chouhan served as convenor of the Kesariya Vahini, the youth mobilisation wing of the yatra.
It was on that yatra, Chouhan said, that he first understood what drove Modi. “When I met Narendra bhai for the first time, I saw his vision, to reach out to the masses, unite people, and awaken the spirit of patriotism,” he said.
That yatra culminated in the hoisting of the Tricolour at Lal Chowk in Srinagar at the height of insurgency in the valley. Chouhan described that as unimaginable to most people at the time.
Chouhan's book was formally launched by former Vice President of India and BJP veteran M Venkaiah Naidu and former PM HD Deve Gowda of the JD(S). The event was attended by several senior leaders, Union ministers and CMs, including those of Chhattisgarh, Uttarakhand and Delhi.
Modi was reportedly scheduled to meet foreign leaders as part of a Quad security group event the same day.
