Shubhadeep Choudhurty
New Delhi, October 1
In a rare gesture, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday bowed before the crowd in the fashion devout Hindus do while paying obeisance to a religious deity. With his knees and forehead touching the ground, the PM paid obeisance to the crowd three consecutive times before he bade adieu to them in a meeting.
Modi had stopped by at Abu Road in Rajasthan on his way back to Delhi from Gujarat where he spent two days inaugurating and laying foundation stones of various projects.
According to the official itinerary, Modi was supposed to speak at the public meeting at Abu Road for 15 minutes (9.05 pm to 9.20 pm). The PM, who arrived late, spoke at the meeting for around three minutes. He did not use the microphone and as a result little of what he said could be followed by the crowd.
Modi left the venue after doing the “pranaam” to the crowd thrice. He was seen waving to the crowd as he left.
“At Abu road, PM doesn’t address the huge gathering with a Mike as he didn’t want to violate any rule of using loudspeaker post 10pm. He did not use mike and loudspeaker,” a tweet posted on the official handle of the BJP unit of Rajasthan later said.
While Modi did not use the microphone, organisers of the meeting showed no such compunction and were seen using the loudspeaker for welcoming Modi and for making various other announcements. Former Rajasthan chief minister Vasuindhara Raje was among those present.