OFBJP Australia – Victoria Chapter is back with a bang!

Rebooted three months ago, the newly structured Victoria Chapter has been capturing Melbourne’s attention. With organising three back to back Chai Pe Charcha, with one including Major Gaurav Arya’s inspiring and passionate video conference with Indian diaspora to helping in kitchen in one of the largest temples every Sunday, the Victoria Chapter has quickly turned into an organisation of highly committed and disciplined Karyakartas.

Brimming with confidence, heading a new team, Victoria Chapter Head – Kushagra Bhatnagar illustrates his vision for the organisation.

Kushagra Bhatnagar – Born and brought up in Indore, he left for United Kingdom at the age of 18 to study Electronic and Communication Engineering. He became university cricket team captain, an avid reader; he had been very active in student’s politics in his university. Having won every election, big or small, with over 90% votes during student life, Kushagra believes politics as an instrument of achieving public good. Recently relocated to Melbourne, known for team building skills he is entrusted by Bhatiya Janta Party Headquarters in Delhi and OFBJP Australia’s National Body in Sydney to lead the Victoria Chapter.

We spoke to him about his vision for Australia – India community in Melbourne.

As Victoria Chapter Head of OFBJP Australia he mentioned his three priorities –

To foster Australia and India relationship : One of my key priorities is to enhance this relationship and identify avenues of progress for Australia and India. The benefits should be mutual and not at each other’s expense.

I would focus on creating opportunities on more frequent exchange of political delegations. Leaders of both sides of the spectrum must have more visibility in each other’s countries and a better understanding and appreciation of each other.

India is an emerging power and one of the challenges it faces is shortage of water. While India enjoys abundant sources of water yet developing a robust water management has been rather low on priority. On the other hand, Australia has done exceedingly well in this department by implementing world class water management system. This distinct competency and knowledge, Australia and share with India and would be very useful for India. For progress in area, one can’t expect trade exchange alone to bear the entire responsibility. For this, political engagement between the countries is vital.

Support Australian and Indian community : Australia has a large ageing population. At this stage of their lives they need medical and emotional care. While, Australian government takes excellent care of its elderly, Indians can play an important role in providing emotional care of senior citizens. Indian culture ingrains young people to respect and engage with elders. OFBJP Australia will run programmes where young people would visit senior citizens and spend time with them. At the twilight of their lives, giving time to them is the greatest gift Indian diaspora can give them.

There is a large number of Indian students in Australia. Away from home and family, they feel vulnerable especially when they are new. Being in a new country is not easy especially getting used to rules and cultural mix. They need support. We have a team of solid individuals who have surmounted those initial challenges and leading a successful life in Australia. They are always available to support you and guide you. For a new or old migrant, doors of OFBJP Australia are always open. Our Karyakartas are extremely skilful and matured in handling human situations and are committed to give the best support they can.

OFBJP Australia is currently undertaking a pilot project to collect pre-owned laptops and donate them to school for tribal children. The details on how to participate in this project will be shared soon upon successful completion of pilot project.

Spread the ideology of Bhartiya Janta Party: I believe Indian diaspora have a moral obligation to directly or indirectly participate in Indian politics.  I believe the BJP is the best choice for the people of India. With NRI voting to happen in the future I am committed to inform people the excellent work of current government led by Shri Narendra Modi .

A new  core team of OFBJP Australia – Victoria Chapter comprises four members apart from Kushagra Bhatnagar

• Jay Shah – General Secretary
• Devang Jasani – Policy Research Analyst
• Suresh Pawar – Committee Member
• Vineet Bharadwaz – Committee Member

Passionately committed to the ideology of BJP, professional background of a tester, Jay Shah brings his professional flavour in the functioning of Victoria Chapter by consistently asking probing questions from the Chapter Head. According to Jay Shah, it’s the duty of General Secretary to keep Chapter Head on his toes for the organisation to run smoothly. As a key strategic advisor and enabler, he is committed to make OFBJP as a go to organisation for Indian diaspora in Melbourne.

Devang Jasani, is the Technical Head and a researcher par excellence. Works in the background, he is the technical backbone of any OFBJP event. Suresh Pawar is an extremely hardworking and sincere Karyakarta. Has the ability to establish rapport with anyone, he helps build public relations of OFBJP. He has tremendous knowledge of great Indian texts. Vineet Bharadwaz is a fire brand, a quality BJP Karyakartas are known for. He has innate understanding of Indian defence literature.

A committed OFBJP Australia – Victoria Team  pulls up a spectacular video conference with Major Gaurav Arya.

Overseas Friends ofBJP Australia continued its successful series of Chai Pe Charcha ,the highlight this time being video conference with Major Gaurav Arya(veteran) -a defence expert and regular panelist on Indian News Channel.

Since taking over the leadership in Victoria Kushagra Bhatnagar(Chapter Head) and Jay Shah(General Secretary), the Team OFBJP have been organising  the famous Chai Pe Charcha(CPC) as a medium to connect with the Indian diaspora and apprise them on the good initiatives and achievements of the Narendra Modi led BJP Government in India.

The recent CPC  that was held on 21st August had a very inspiring Independence Day speech by Kushagra Bhatnagar and an insightful presentation on recent GST Bill success and its impact on economy by Devang Jasani.

But the highlight of the event was Video conference with Major Gaurav Arya (veteran) who was humble enough to spare some time and enlighten us on various challenges that India as a nation faces. He spoke on various issues ranging from indigenisation of Defence Technology to challenges that Army faces in Kashmir. On the occasion of Independence day, he stressed upon the fact that Independence is not a one time achievement but a continuous struggle which Army fights day and night for its citizens, to which the audience applauded.

There was a small group of anarchist paid protesters that tried to disrupt the event and raised slogans. However the audience supported the entire team and made sure that there was a spectacular event .

There was a unanimous support in favour of Shri Narendra Modi led BJP government and Indian Army which was reaffirmed with the slogans of “Bharat Mata ki Jay”.