Ugandan businessman and politician Hon. Sanjay Tanna, has rallied the Indian Diaspora to vote for the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and incumbent Prime Minister Narendra Damodardas Modi in the forthcoming elections.
Tanna, a renowned businessman in Uganda and East Africa, says Narendra Modi is a ‘People’s Leader’, dedicated to solving their problems and improving their well-being , adding that nothing is more satisfying to him than being amongst the people, sharing their joys and alleviating their sorrows.
‘’The Prime Minister Modi with whom I have happened to spend quite a bit of time when he was a chief minister I hosted him in Uganda and as a prime Minister of India we hosted him again in 2017. He is an excellent communicator and he knows what to say when and how to say it .If you look at the Diaspora and what we are doing here today is that he managed to identify us. Everyone knew we existed but he identified us, I belong to a family that has lived outside India for more than 100 years but he identified and brought us within the full and is now riding on that good will and the assets that we hold’’, said Tanna.
He added that in a foreign affairs perspective, Modi has built a wonderful team citing Subrahmanyam Jaishankar whom he said is a big gift to India noting that today Indians are judged, positioned differently and they command respect because of the sitting government.
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‘’I had an opportunity to discuss with the Hon. Minister Jaishankar. He is a big gift to India because PM Modi has built a good team. If you look at the way he has communicated on the Russia-Ukraine war, positioning India firmly, no Indian leader before had the audacity to tell off the western powers that we will do what is right for India. That Position of his was music to some of us , many of us who live outside , when you put your passport they judge you differently and the amount of respect that we command has changed tremendously because of the sitting government’’, added Tanna.
General elections are expected to be held in India between April and May 2024 to elect 543 members of the Lok Sabha. Election schedule for 18th Lok Sabha will be announced by Election Commission of India (ECI). The tenure of 17th Lok Sabha is scheduled to end on 16 June 2024.
The national executive meeting of BJP held on 16 and 17 January 2023 saw the party reaffirm its faith in Prime Minister Narendra Modi and extend the tenure of BJP national president J. P. Nadda.
After the Bharatiya Janata Party-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) won a landslide in the 2014 Lok Sabha election, Modi was sworn in as Prime Minister (PM) of India on 26 May 2014, becoming the first Indian PM to be born after the country’s independence from the British Empire in 1947. Modi’s second term as PM began in 2019 following the NDA’s 2019 Lok Sabha election win. According to surveys released on 3 February 2024, 64% of participants preferred the incumbent Narendra Modi (BJP) followed by Rahul Gandhi (INC) at 17% as the next Prime Minister of India.
At the invitation of His Excellency Yoweri Kaguta Museveni, President of the Republic of Uganda, the Prime Minister of India, Shri Narendra Modi undertook a State Visit to Uganda from 24-25 July 2018. He was accompanied by a high-level delegation of senior officials of the Government of India and a large business delegation. This was the first visit by an Indian Prime Minister in 21 years.
Modi’s visit not only strengthened the existing economic relations but also paved way for further Indian investments to the country especially in the health, agriculture and Information Technology (IT) sectors. Uganda has been a significant beneficiary of India’s capacity building schemes through several Indian Council of Cultural Relations (ICCR) vocational and other non-vocational schemes and Indian Technical and Economic Co-operation (ITEC) capacity building schemes.
Every year Uganda receives several scholarships for students to study various degree and vocational courses in India; the numbers of students going to India surged after the visit. Cooperation in defence and counter-terrorism also received attention; members of the Uganda People’s Defence Force (UPDF) are being trained in various Indian Army training institutions in India under the ITEC. The Indian military training team is deployed in Uganda’s Senior Command and Staff College (SCSC) in Kimaka to train soldiers. The Prime Ministerial delegation also donated three cancer scanning machines, in recognition of the fact that India is an important destination in the sub-region for medical tourism. This gesture opened the dialogue between various aspects of health co-operation between the two nations.
Tanna, a former Member of Parliament for Tororo Municipality in Eastern Uganda made the remarks recently, during a ceremony where he was awarded by the Association of Indian Americans in North America (AIANA).
Sanjay, who had also earlier been invited to attend the second edition of the Pravasi Gujarati Party that ran from 9th to 11th February, 2024 got the award and recognition by the government of Gujarati in the presence of the Honorable Chief Minister. The ceremony took place at Ahmedabad during the three day meeting that ended on Sunday, 11th February, 2024.
Sanjay was recognized for his business success, political participation of his country of birth, Uganda, generosity towards his constituents in Tororo Municipality and Humanitarian endeavors. Sanjay spoke at the event as a Special Guest sharing his political, business and humanitarian experiences both in and outside Uganda.
This award serves as a catalyst for fostering a new and invaluable relationship between Uganda and India bringing together Gujarati Indians in the Diaspora.The Gujaratis constitute about 40% of Indians in the Diaspora making them a considerable world business and political force.
This award follows Tanna’s appointment as Board Chairman for Kilembe mines, Uganda’s largest mining corporation.
Born in 1973 to parents of Indian origin (Gujarati) in East Africa (3rd generation), Hon Sanjay is happily married and a Practicing Hindu. He studied in Uganda right from Nursery through to Makerere University where he acquired a Diploma in Law. He worked in the office of the President and served as private secretary to the Vice President of the Republic of Uganda. (2003-2006). Hon Sanjay joined active politics and got Elected to Parliament of Uganda and served for 2 terms (2006-2016). The only person of Indian origin to have been re-elected to parliament for 2 consecutive terms and at the time also served at the joint EU-ACP Parliament for 2 and a half years. He is the current chairman of Tan Group of Companies (family business). A conglomerate with interests in several sectors like Media, Security, Finance, Distribution of beverages & FMCG, Telecoms, Travel & Tours, Logistics, Real estate & Education.
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is the major political party in India .Since 2014; it has been the ruling political party in India under the incumbent Prime Minister Narendra Modi. As of January 2024, it is the country’s biggest political party in terms of representation in the Parliament of India as well as state legislatures. The BJP’s economic policy has changed considerably since its founding. There is a significant range of economic ideologies within the party.
Leading international agencies have noted that under the leadership of PM Narendra Modi, India has been eliminating poverty at record pace. This is attributed to a series of pro-poor decisions taken by the Central Government.
