History in the Making

History in the making--I witnessed it today-

Unprecedented  and unimaginable response from the participating students. This never heard of exercise, covering the entire country, was never attempted, Forget about attempting - it was never even thought of by anyone .

Does this one gesture not make Narendra Modi stand out differently.

Of course, most of the students asking the questions were from English speaking urban schools, though there were students from Dantewada, Chhatisgarh- quite a backward area and they asked the right question.

I appreciated his concern for hygiene- the lack of toilet facilities in schools, which surely is a deterrent for girls in attending schools . He emphasized the need to answer this at the earliest.Quite a challenging step but one of top priority.

Each and every question was answered, peppered with anecdotes from his own childhood . Am sure the children must have instantly connected to that.

He suggested measures to students on how to save power ,cajoled them into participating in the nation building process .Baby steps ,small measures which when totaled, would surely become an Ocean.

I instantly connected with him, when he initated the idea of reading and while giving an example, told them that some are in the habit of reading what is written on the printed paper in which the eatable parcel is wrapped. Most won't relate to it today, as they are used to eating in plates and with  spoons. But I recollect vividly that I had that habit in my childhood. The love for reading was so all-consuming that whenever I ate bhel or brought pav [bread ] wrapped into some paper or for that matter any parcel wrapped in some printed material , I used to read, the written matter and this practice continued for quite a long time, perhaps until ,the packing method was changed.

In the past, Nehru was touted to be in love with children and many a photographs of his interaction with the children were published .Maybe his love sprang from his devotion to his own grandchildren, but it was evident in the published photographs, just  as his taste for good life was evident in the photograph ,where he joined Edwina Mountbatten in cigarette smoking.

Narendra Modi- for all practical purposes has led a celibate life. Hence his love and affection towards children seemed all the more to be authentic but a  big surprise.

Am sure his critics are going to call this a pure publicity stunt, but then why did Manmohan Singh or the short term sleepy Deve Gowda or Inder Gujral or V P Singh never undertake such an exercise. Did not mention Chandrashekhar or Gulzarilal Nanda because they were- blink and you miss Prime Ministers. Poor Lal Bahadur Shastri ,was so busy with the war that he must have hardly had time to interact. Indira Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi, am sure did some photo-op with children . But this was unprecedented.

I don't know if all this exercise was a publicity gimmick by the government. Even if it was- I welcome it and more such informal interactions of the Prime Minister with different groups.

Bravo Narendra Modi- keep it up .You have the attention of the nation

Dilip Apte

September 5 , 2014