Did 100 Corporate CEO's really join the BJP ?

[amiret]

On Tuesday, Kumria said by phone (he was still in Canada) that 120 corporate leaders attended the event and 100 of them joined the BJP. He promised he would share the list of the CEOs. On Friday, an assistant of Kumria said it would be difficult to provide such a list because actually only 100 people had attended the event. Thakur too said his office will send the list of 100 CEOs, but it was yet to come at the time of going to press. Efforts to get in touch with the "CEOs who became BJP members" — all the names mentioned in the party statement — also threw up puzzling results A colleague of Pervaiz Alamgir Khan said he was no CEO, but a station manager. A statement by Lufthansa said the correct designation is chief security officer. Khan said he is not affiliated to any political party. Henry Moses, the country head of Qatar Airlines (the BJP statement got the name and designation correct), and Anil Parashar of Interglobe Technologies (he is actually president and CEO of InterGlobe Technology Quotient) declined comment. But the public relations representatives of their companies said there was a miscommunication about the nature of the event and they have not joined any party. "Neeta Agarwal of AT&T" is a legal counsel for the company. She did not comment for this article. Efforts to reach Jagpreet Lamba of AIKON Group were futile; the company has no website or phone numbers listed.ET Magazine did not try to reach Dr Naveen Talwar and Rajeev Tyagi whom the BJP statement rightly describes as professionals. Companies such as SpiceJet, UTC and KPMG whose "top executives" the BJP said attended the event were not thrilled by the publicity blitz that ensued. A person familiar with the operations of budget airline SpiceJet said his understanding was that it was a 'BJP event' and not a 'joining BJP event'. "Only one person attended and he said it was nothing like what was reported," said the person asking not to be named. The person said the airline did not approve of the BJP press statement. "We were all surprised by the reports."

Another executive of a company who spoke on the guarantee that neither his nor his company's names are mentioned too said they were taken aback by the news reports of the event. "We are an apolitical organisation. Some executives went in their personal capacity. Why did the BJP have to drag the name of the organisation?" A spokesman for UTC, a multinational that has interests in defence, aerospace and building industries, said the event was only a platform to speak to the party .

A great example of the political nonalignment of companies is the way they contribute to party coffers. Contribution reports for the 2013-14 financial year that the BJP and the Congress submitted to the Election Commission show that many companies have generously donated to both parties. Take auto parts maker Bharat Forge. The company donated Rs 2.5 crore to the Congress and Rs 1.5 crore to the BJP. Torrent Power and Torrent Pharmaceuticals, offshoots of the Ahmedabad-based Torrent Group. Satya Electoral Trust, created by the Bharti Airtel group in collaboration with seven other big businesses, including Hero MotorCorp, Interglobe Aviation and DLF, handed out Rs 41.37 crore to the BJP and Rs 36.5 crore to the Congress in 2013-14. These companies also furnished money to regional parties such as Shiromani Akali Dal, National Conference, RJD and NCP. As these examples show, companies take care to keep most, if not all, political parties happy . Ergo, the announcement by the BJP on February 1 that 100 CEOs have joined the party was nothing short of extraordinary. Newspapers, news websites and TV channels picked up the news because it seemed unprecedented and significant, coming as it did a week before the Delhi assembly elections. The reports were based on a press statement by the party which declared: "Over 100 CEOs became members of the BJP."The Times of India said the event "would showcase the business-friendly image of the BJP". In case the significance was lost on readers, the website of India TV reminded them that 100 corporate honchos joined the BJP "on a single day".

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/articleshow/47053707.cms?utm_source=contentofinterest&utm_medium=text&utm_campaign=cppst

[gslv]

Now waiting for a moderator to step in here and preach about agenda.

[G_B_]

in reality probably more than 100 have already joined the BJP. A lot of them jumped onto the BJP bandwagon when Suresh Prabhu a man with vast contacts in the mumbai corporate world became the railway minister. There is no point in these people joining the BJP. When times become tough they will be the first to quit. They are more than the icing on the cake than the cake itself.

[amiret]

From that ET article :

The question mark over "CEOs becoming BJP members" comes in the wake of the BJP claiming earlier this week that it has crossed the 10-crore membership mark to become the largest party in the world. That claim also raised eyebrows after news reports quoted people saying they became "members" after receiving automatic calls or text messages

People automatically became members of BJP because they received text messages ?