Modi vows clean Ganges

Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi on Thursday filed his nomination papers for the ongoing Lok Sabha elections in the ancient city of Varanasi in Uttar Pradesh and promised to turn it into the spiritual capital of the world, clean up the mighty Ganges river and put its famed weavers back on the road to prosperity.

“Mother Ganges has called me to Varanasi. I don’t think anyone has sent me here nor have I come here. Like a child returning to his mother’s arms, I have come here to Ganges,” he told mediapersons outside the district collectorate before filing his papers.

Modi’s main rivals for the Varanasi Lok Sabha seat are Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader and former Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal and Congress nominee Ajay Rai, a local leader of the party.

Most opinion polls have placed Modi and his party as the front-runners in the elections.

Well-known classical vocalist Channulal Mishra, retired Allahabad High Court judge Giridhar Malaviya, a boatman Virbhadra Nishad and Ashok, a weaver, were among those who signed Modi’s nomination papers as proposers.

Senior BJP leaders Amit Shah, Ravi Shankar Prasad and Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi were amongst those present on the occasion.

Modi is also contesting for a seat in the Lok Sabha, the lower house of parliament, from Vadodara in Gujarat, where his main rival is senior Congress leader Madhusudhan Mistry. Vadodara will go to the polls on April 30, while Varanasi will vote on May 12 in the final round of the nine-phase elections.

Modi appears to have decided to contest from Varanasi also as part of an effort to project himself as a national leader. Uttar Pradesh has given India most of its Prime Ministers since independence in 1947. Modi’s presence in Uttar Pradesh is expected to give his party a big boost in adjacent districts of the state as well as in nearby states such as Bihar.

“The Modi wave in the country has turned into a tsunami after Modi filed his papers from here today and it will wipe out all other parties such as the Samajwadi Party, the Bahujan Samaj Party and the Congress in Uttar Pradesh,” Shah, one of Modi’s closest confidants, told reporters later.

Earlier, Modi, 63, arrived in Varanasi to a huge welcome by thousands of his party’s supporters who lined up both sides of the streets on his route to the collectorate. On the way, he paid tributes at the statues of Pandit Madan Mohan Malaviya, a renowned educationist and one of the best-known sons of Varanasi, as well as of Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, India’s first deputy prime minister and home minister and one of the most respected leaders of all time in Gujarat. Incidentally, Giridhar Malaviya is a grandson of Madan Mohan Malaviya.

Modi, who has been the chief minister of Gujarat since late 2001, told reporters that he had been able to change the fortunes of kite makers, who are mainly Muslims, in his state by modernising the industry and introducing new technology and marketing tools and was confident he would be able to achieve similar changes for the weaver community of Varanasi, again made up largely of Muslims.

He also spoke about his success in cleaning up the Sabarmati river that flows through Ahmedabad, the main city of Gujarat, and building a modern waterfront there, and hoped to develop the Ganges in Varanasi in similar fashion.

“Varanasi is the cradle of India’s glorious culture, a confluence of tradition, history, culture and harmony. This is the blessed land of the Sankat Mochan temple. The spiritual power of this land is exceptional. It drew people from all over the world, who came to this land in search of peace and Moksha. It was in Sarnath, that Gautama Buddha delivered his first sermon after attaining Enlightenment. Varanasi is the birthplace of the venerable Sant Ravidas. It was in Benaras that Mahatma Kabir was born, lived and shared his wisdom. Mirza Ghalib described Benaras as Kaba-E-Hindustan and Chirag-E-Dair or the light of the world. When Pandit Madan Mohan Malaviya had to select a place to set up a centre of learning, it was not a surprise that he chose Benaras. No mention of Varanasi is complete without remembering (shehnai player) Ustad Bismillah Khan, arguably the greatest symbol of Ganga-Jamuni Tehzeeb. Ustad Bismillah Khan Sahab’s love for Varanasi is legendary,” Modi said in his blog before he reached Varanasi.

“We envision Varanasi as a world heritage site that is able to draw both devotees and those who wish to understand and absorb India’s culture. This means creating state-of-the-art tourist and infrastructure facilities for Varanasi. And it is my firm belief that once we are able to give the required impetus to tourism, it will not only bring more tourists but also enhance the livelihood of the poorest of the poor. More tourists means more income for those associated with temples, those who are living on the Ghats, those who ride the ferries on the Ganges. The entire town and surrounding areas will receive a much needed facelift,” he said.

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