washington the lines were repeats the stats were mere updates and the inevitable verses had been heard before but for some 3000 people of indian origin who trooped in with military precision to the jacob javits center in new york sunday evening the annual darshan of prime minister atal bihari vajpayee was as good as it gets the yearly ritual has become such a rite of passage for vajpayee that some officials joked that he might as well begin the ndabjp election campaign here in the vilayati pocketborough so loyal is the nri constituency indeed the buzz during the event was that the ruling establishment is already lining up funds for the electionbut vajpayee vintage and vigorous disarmed the gathering and won warm applause by declaring we are not just eyeing your money for developing india we are also after your hearts and minds he hardly needed to make the pitch rallied together by indias ambassadoratlarge bhisham agnihotri 34 indian and indianamerican organizations representing a wide spectrum of indias regional and professional diversity were introduced to the prime minister and together they pledged to help india become a developed country by 2020it was a stirring display of indian pluralism and unity by groups often seen as divisive and scrappy in fact the entire event which lasted just over an hour was organized with clockwork precision and was probably shortest prime ministerial nri engagement in the five visits he has made here in six years vajpayee too dispensed with the extempore speech he typically makes at these events for a written address that was still informal and engaging also a first the hindi speech could also be read instantly in english close caption on two big screens for the benefit of the many nris who dont know hindi the translation and transcription was done out of pittsburg a technological uptick that lent an added timbre to vajpayees boast that wherever you see a computer setup across the world youll see an indian around the pms address was also available to 40000 listeners on ecb radio an ethnic network the speech itself was largely a repeat or an update of what he has been saying on previous visits the economic upswing in india the fact that it has become food surplus and turned from debtor to creditor he milked these bragging rights for all it is worthbut this is just the beginning not the end he said asking nris and pios to not only put their money where their mouth is but also contribute in terms of ideas and inputs vajpayee also tugged at their heartstrings saying we are born of the same womb of mother india you will never feel alone or abandoned the prime minister who looked in much better physical shape than during previous visits also