PM walks the talk on govt's pro-poor image on birthday

Modi app sees flood of wishes from India Inc

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday marked his 66th birthday among tribals and differently abled in Gujarat, while his party leaders and workers celebrated the occasion as “seva divas”, or service day, organised free eye checkup camps for the poor, visited hospitals and carried out cleanliness drives.

The sunrise-to-dusk celebrations were consistent with the PM’s recent efforts to project his government’s image as that of working for the poorest and the marginalised: Farmers, workers and the differently-abled.

The PM is scheduled to repeat this message of “serving the poor” at the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)’s once-a-year national council meeting, scheduled to be held  from September 23 in Kozhikode, Kerala. The meeting would set the agenda for BJP’s election campaign ahead of the forthcoming assembly polls in five states, including Uttar Pradesh.

Modi landed in Ahmedabad to mark his birthday by taking the blessings of his mother and then addressing public rallies in Limkheda, where he announced schemes for the tribals, and later at Navsari.

World leaders, his Cabinet ministers, opposition leaders, including Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi, and corporate honchos wished him on social media.

Former PM Manmohan Singh and senior BJP leader L K Advani phoned to wish him, while Chief Justice of India T S Thakur, who has recently been critical of the government on the issue of appointments of judges, met the PM to convey his greetings. There was some buzz on Twitter how Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal was yet to congratulate Modi.

On Twitter, hashtags ‘seva diwas’ and ‘happyBdayPMModi’ trended, but so did tweets from Dalit outfits who protested the preventive detention of Dalit activist Jignesh Mevani in Gujarat, while the Patidar community also claimed that 400 of their youths were in preventive detention so that there weren’t any protests during the PM’s Gujarat visit.

Several celebrities, actors, industry captains and sportspersons wrote testimonials in honour of the PM on the ‘Narendra Modi App’. People at large were also encouraged to send their wishes on the App.

Those who sent testimonials included Hindi film personalities Amitabh Bachchan, Lata Mangeshkar, Madhuri Dixit, Aamir Khan and Shilpa Shetty. Among sportspersons, shooter Abhinav Bindra, badminton coach P Gopichand and Rio Olympics silver medalist P V Sindhu wrote about the PM’s leadership and his support to sports.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi being blessed by his mother, Heeraben Modi, on his 66th birthday

Journalists like Arnab Goswami also praised Modi’s leadership and reminisced about their association with him that dated nearly two decades back.

Industrialists who sent their testimonials included Tim Cook, Mukesh Ambani, Anil Ambani, Cyrus Mistry, Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw, Sunil Bharti Mittal, Kumar Mangalam Birla, Gautam Thapar, Baba Kalyani, Shashi Ruia, Chanda Kochhar, Ajit Gulabchand, Anil Aggarwal, Anand Mahindra, Sanjeev Bhikchandani and Nimesh Kampani.



Common people also marked the PM’s birthday in different ways. Dhruvi Patel turned six on Saturday. Unlike toys or clothes, this year her father, Jigar Patel, celebrated her birthday uniquely. On Friday, between 3 pm and 5 pm, Patel opened his garment store on Ghod Dod Road in Surat for over 250 differently-abled and HIV-positive children, including orphans. “Garments worth Rs 5 lakh were distributed for free,” he told reporters.

In Limkheda, the PM said, “Even today, I do not celebrate my birthday.” But that didn’t stop Surat. At 10 am, the Maniba Party Plot was a packed house with women thronging to cut the 2,500-kg pyramid chocoberry cake prepared by city-based Atul Bakery. At about 2 metres, the pyramid-shape cake, baked by around 20 chefs, aimed to beat the 1.74m pyramid cake that earned the Guinness Book of World Records in Rzeszow, Poland, on May 21, 2011.

In another part of the state, a gigantic wheelchair logo in Navsari too held prospects of entering the record books.  In Dahod, the administration is aiming to enter the record books with the highest number of hearing aids distribution on a single day within eight hours.

Yet, all that PM Modi had to say about his birthday was, "I only look forward to seek my mother's blessings on my birthday. That's it."
TO DEAR PM FROM INDIA INC

“Your idea of India has been nurtured by the teachings of (Mahatma) Gandhi and Vivekanand, your actions governed by the likes of Ambedkar and Sardar Patel”

Mukesh Ambani, CMD, RIL

“He is a renaissance man, a visionary, for whom the country comes before self”

Kumar Mangalam Birla, Chairman, Aditya Birla Group

“The eloquence with which the PM communicates India’s vision for the world on global platforms and the way his charismatic statesmanship gets applauded, it makes each and every Indian proud”

Sunil Bharti Mittal, Chairman, Bharti Enterprises

“One of the first meetings I had along with Ratan Tata in 2012 was with Narendra Modi... I was deeply impressed by the ability of Modi to discuss a wide range of issues not only with breadth but also depth”

Cyrus P Mistry, Chairman, Tata Group