If we have gone ahead & anyone is left behind, we are willing to wait for them to catch up and come with us, Modi said.
Sadbhavana, sadbhavana, and some more sadbhavana. Literally translated into English as ‘goodwill’, this sadbhavana reflected through the three-day fast of Chief Minister Narendra Modi appears to be an intense exercise to underscore his affinity for the minority community.
Flanked by BJP national leaders LK Advani, Arun Jaitley and Rajnath Singh, Modi kicked off his three-day fast with a thundering speech talking about peace, harmony — and also injustice to Gujarat over the last few years.
The hall with a seating capacity of about 4,000 was brimming by the time Modi arrived at the venue at 10:00am. With religious leaders from different communities, strategically seated on his either side on a grand stage, Modi addressed the crowd for good part of an hour on Saturday morning. In what several see as an olive branch for the Muslim community, Modi avowed that “all six crore Gujaratis are my family; their joys and sorrows are my own”.
“There is no discrimination in government schemes. If we have gone ahead and anyone is left behind, we are willing to wait for them to catch up and take them together,” he said.
This address was to the members from the Muslim community present in the hall.
Words like humanity, harmony, justice, equality, respect, love, brotherhood and the like were repeated several times in his spontaneous speech. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) was sparsely mentioned and the ‘government’ abundantly referred to. A short circuit in the hall close to Modi’s stage notwithstanding, the crowds were then systematically made to pass by the stage for a close look at the CM. A music band played music through the day to liven up the atmosphere. The morning crowds thinned by noon, and more poured in from different parts of the state through the day led by legislators.
Congress party’s Satyagraha fast got off to a good start with crowds surpassing the given limit of 500 people. Leaders Shankersinh Vaghela, Shaktisinh Gohil and Arjun Modhwadia welcomed the crowds. Vaghela wished Modi on his 61st birthday, saying:
“I would pray to God that he should feel and understand the pain of other people and work to provide them relief.”
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