Unicorn founders, tech chiefs lend soft endorsement to Modi 3.0 at Lutyens' Delhi

On the lawn of a ministerial bungalow in Lutyens' Delhi, a host of unicorn founders and tech executives gathered on May 20 evening to talk about the achievements made by India in the past 10 years of the Narendra Modi government which seeks re-election for a third term.

With the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)'s poll imagery emblazoned across the premises, it was perhaps the first instance in recent times that a group of the country's tech elite openly lent its support to an election campaign.

While some shied away from a direct endorsement, almost everyone agreed that they would like "continuity", a term favoured by the corporate world to refer to status quo.

A few of them were invited by the presiding hosts of the ‘Dinner Pe Charcha’, Union Ministers Hardeep Singh Puri and Rajeev Chandrasekhar, to speak at the podium about what they felt about the first two terms and what they expect from the next term.

Among those who delivered addresses were Zomato founder Deepinder Goyal, Dixon  Technologies Chairman Sunil Vachani, Urban Company founder Abhiraj Bahl, Mamaearth founder Varun Alagh, EaseMyTrip founder Rikant Pittie, MapMyIndia CEO Rohan Verma, Peak XV partner Rajan Anandan and Pankaj Mohindroo, chief of industry body India Cellular and Electronics Association (ICEA).

A cutout of PM Modi at the event for participants to shoot photos and video bytes

As might be expected from a crowd of techies, the dominant theme of the speeches was the rapid digitalisation of India over the past decade.

They talked about the Modi government's achievements of enabling internet penetration across the length and breadth of the country, fast digital payments and promoting electronics manufacturing in India.

"In the last 10 years, what this government has done has completely transformed the geospatial space. He unlocked a trinity of tech that unlocked the growth for the country," said MapMyIndia CEO Rohan Verma. He also called upon the government to do something in its third term about the 'new East India Company', in a reference to Google, that is allegedly hurting Indian startups.

"There is no doubt in my mind that our country and company have come a long way. There was a time when we imported almost all mobile phones," said Vachani of Dixon Technologies, which assembles smartphones for brands like Xiaomi.

"It's the first time in history that our country has produced $100 billion of electronics products. The josh (confidence) is so high that we are now looking at $100 billion of mobile phone exports," he added.

Mohindroo, a veteran that leads industry body ICEA, recounted a scene from a Shahrukh Khan movie, Veer Zaara, to illustrate the government's dedication towards making electronics in India.

"I was asked what the difference is. There is a scene in the movie where Zaara, who is going to be married into a very wealthy family, asks her mother, "Mom, does dad love you? Her mother says yes. Then the daughter asks, ‘Is he ready to give his life for you?’ The mother says it’s a silly question. She says ‘But, I know somebody who is willing to give his life for me’," he said.

Entrance to the May 20 event

Later, Mohindroo caused a brief moment of unease in the audience when he said that one of the challenges for India was that “we have not been able to rein in our enforcement agencies”.

Zomato founder and CEO Deepinder Goyal regaled the audience with a funny anecdote from his early days of starting up. He said, “My father asked me, ‘Tu jaanta hain tera baap kaun hain?’ (Do you know who your father is?)… Over the past 16 years, especially 7-10 years, the government has kept itself out of the way of startups... hope it continues.”

Even as some experts have expressed doubts in the past couple of weeks about the possibility of the Narendra Modi government returning to power, the tech honchos at the Lutyens meet-up were pretty confident of a third term. Interestingly, the event was conducted with a few days to go for polling in Delhi and after four of a total of seven phases of the election have already been completed.

“Boss, it is a 99 percent certainty. If people were not confident of it, do you think we would all have come here today?” said a 30-something founder who has never voted in a national election that the BJP lost.