Prime Minister Narendra Modi during the distribution tricycle to Divyang on occasion of his 67th birthday celebration in Navsari. (Photo: PTI)
Prime Minister Narendra Modi during the distribution tricycle to Divyang on occasion of his 67th birthday celebration in Navsari. (Photo: PTI)
Prime Minister Narendra Modi spent his 66th birthday in his home state Gujarat where Assembly elections are scheduled to be held next year. After taking the blessings of his 97-year-old mother Hiraba in Gandhinagar, the Prime Minister attended two programmes. He interacted with tribals in Dahod and specially-challenged people in Navsari. Three Guinness World records were also broken on his birthday at an event in Navsari in south Gujarat, which incidentally has the highest concentration of Patidars.
This was Mr Modi’s second visit in less than 20 days to Gujarat where the ruling BJP is facing problems, including the dalit stir and Patidar’s quota agitation. The two agitations forced the BJP to go for a change in leadership last month when Anandiben Patel was replaced by Vijay Rupani as chief minister.
Many felt that choosing tribal-dominated Dahod as one of the main venues for Mr Modi’s birthday celebrations was the BJP’s attempt to placate the community which was impacted by the recent Una incident where dalit community members were publicly flogged by cow vigilantes. Despite efforts by the state government, the stir is yet to die down. The Prime Minister launched tribal development projects in Limkheda, Dahod, and also interacted with the tribals.
In Navsari, Mr Modi ensured dignity and empowerment for the “Divyangs” (differently-abled people), a term coined by him, and said efforts will be initiated to boost entrepreneurship for them at the grassroot level.
The Prime Minister spent around 40 minutes in Raisan area of the state capital where he met his family members and then the Chief Justice of India, T.S. Thakur, at the Raj Bhavan. Chief Justice Thakur is in Gujarat to attend a judicial conference.
Claiming to be the first Prime Minister to work for the upliftment of “Divyangs” to help them live a life of dignity, Mr Modi also took a jibe at earlier governments. “Chalta hai, karenge, challenge — yeh zamana chala gaya. Now it’s time to act and do it. Mein pehla aisa pradhan mantri hoon jisne Divyango ke karyakram mein aane ka sobhagye prapt hua hai,” Mr Modi said after he greeted them in Gujarati, “Kem Cho. Maja ma,” which drew loud cheers from the huge gathering.
Mr Modi said his government is working overtime to make communication for differently-abled easier. Efforts are on to develop a “common sign language” and a common syllabus so that communication get easier, he said amidst loud applause.
The PM, who coined the term “Divyang” (people with extraordinary capabilities) instead of viklang (handicapped), said that the term doesn’t come from dictionary but needs churning of mind.
“The Divyangs are no less than any other. They should live with their head held high,” he said, adding that the participants at this year’s Paralympics have done India proud. “Ladkiyon ne Olympics mein aur Paralympics mein aur bhi behtar pradharshan kiya hai,” he said to a roaring crowd of approximately 20,000 people.
As part of his birthday celebrations, Navsari district created history by breaking three world records and entered the Guinness book of Records.
As many as 1,500 oil lamps were lit simultaneously at a single location, setting a world records, followed by another one in which maximum number of people in wheelchairs formed a logo: “Happy Birthday Modi”. The previous record was made in the US by 346 wheelchair-bound persons in 2010.
Another world record was set by providing hearing aids to about 1,000 hearing-impaired persons. The previous record was made in Australia. “Duniya mein aaj Navsari ka naam sunhere aksharo mein likh gaya. Teen record break kar diye, itne record bana diye ki koi jaldi se todd na payega,” he further said.
The Navsari district administration on Saturday organised the country’s biggest “Divyang” camp to celebrate the PM’s birthday. Over 11,000 disabled people, including youngsters and children, from across south Gujarat, were distributed disabled-friendly kits including tricycles, hearing aids, specially-designed smart phones, tablets and other appliances worth Rs 7 crore. Around 17,000 kits were given by the PM to 11,223 differently-abled people.
Showing his softer side, Mr Modi also helped a wheel chair bound man and took a five-year-old differently-abled girl to the microphone and asked her to sing a song. He ended the speech with “Sabhi divyango ko sir jhuka ke naman,” and then cheered the crowd to repeat “Bharat mata ki Jai” after him.
