Modi's birthday: Receiving big cats, meeting students and auctioning gifts

The BJP will organise unity-in-diversity festivals, blood donation drive, cleanliness drive across the country as part of its fortnight-long “seva” campaign to mark Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s birthday, party general secretary Arun Singh said on Friday.

The campaign will begin on Modi’s birthday on September 17 and conclude on October 2, the birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi, Singh said.

Addressing the press conference at the BJP headquarters, Singh said the main objective of the campaign is to “reach out to the poor and downtrodden and improve their quality of life”.

As part of the campaign, BJP workers in all districts will organise “unity in diversity” festivals and send a message of “Ek Bharat, Shresth Bharat (One India, Great India)” to the people.

During these festivals, BJP functionaries in all state units will identify a state different from theirs and adopt its language and culture for a day, Singh said.

The party will undertake plantation drive, cleanliness drive, and awareness campaigns for water conservation during the fortnight-long campaign, he said.

Singh said that BJP workers would also distribute equipment among people with disability, promote khadi products, and organise free health checkup camps during this period.

“Welfare of the poor and downtrodden is the focal point of Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led governments welfare schemes,” Singh said.

As part of the campaign, BJP workers and people in general will be encouraged to use Khadi and local products on October 2.

The BJP has formed an eight-member central panel led by Arun Singh to monitor the campaign.

The BJP has been celebrating Prime Minister Modi’s birthday as Seva Diwas (Day of Service) for several years by organising welfare activities across the country for a fortnight.

Busy day for Modi on birthday

• In the morning, Modi will visit Madhya Pradesh and release cheetahs at the Kuno National Park. (Madhya Pradesh)
• To meeting self-help groups at Karahal in Madhya Pradesh.
• To address around 40 lakh students at the first-ever convocation of students from ITIs on the occasion of Vishwakarma Jayanti.
• To launch National Logistics Policy (NLP)

Auction of gifts

A model statue of Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose made by sculptor Arun Yogiraj and sporting memorabilia of the Commonwealth Games medallists gifted to Modi are among the over 1,200 items that will be auctioned starting Saturday.

Union Culture Minister G Kishan Reddy said a statue of Lord Ganesha, a trident, models of the upcoming Ram temple at Ayodhya and the Kashi-Vishwanath Temple in Varanasi, will also be part of the e-auction of gifts and mementoes given to the prime minister, proceeds of which will go to the Namami Gange Mission.

Yogiraj, along with a team of artisans, had sculpted the monolithic 28-ft statue of Netaji which was recently unveiled by Modi at India Gate, had in April gifted a model statue of Bose.

“Glad to have met @yogiraj_arun today. Grateful to him for sharing this exceptional sculpture of Netaji Bose,” Modi had tweeted on April 5.

The young artist, who had also sculpted the statue of Adi Shankaracharya, which was installed at Kedarnath in November 2021, had shared images of the black model statue of Netaji after meeting the prime minister in April this year.

“Got the opportunity to present 2ft monolithic stone model of Subhas Chandra Bose to @narendramodi Ji.., ” he had tweeted.

Reddy, while interacting with reporters, said sporting memorabilia gifted to the prime minister by several sportspersons will be part of the auction.

A ministry official said 25 new sporting memorabilia would be part of the auction.

“These sportspersons include CWG 2022 medallists who took part in the Paralympic Games 2022 and Thomas Cup 2022. Many sportspersons who brought laurels for India at the latest Commonwealth Games have gifted the sporting equipment they had played with to win medals. These will be part of the auction,” Reddy said.

The CWG 2022 was held in Birmingham, the UK, where many Indian sportspersons shone with their performances, winning 61 medals in total.

The auction will be conducted through portal pmmementos.gov.in, and will conclude on October 2. Some of the gifts are on display at the National Gallery of Modern Art.

These items can also be viewed on the website. This will be the fourth edition of the e-auction of prestigious and memorable gifts presented to Modi, the culture ministry said, adding, more than 1,200 items will be on auction this time.

The 2021 edition was held from September 17 to October 7.

“In 2019, such items were auctioned for people through open bidding. That time, 1,805 gifts were put on auction in the first round, and in the second round, 2,772 gift items were put on auction. In 2021, also e-auction was organised in September and we had 1,348 items on auction. This year, approximately 1,200 mementoes and gift items have been put on e-auction,” Reddy said.

“Mementoes that will go on auction include exquisite paintings, sculptures, handicrafts and folk artefacts. Several of these are items customarily offered as gifts, such as traditional angavastrams, shawls, headgears, ceremonial swords,” the minister said.

Reddy added that Modi is the “first-ever Prime Minister of India, who has decided to auction all the gifts he receives for a noble cause of conserving the lifeline of the country – the river Ganga through Namami Gange mission. I urge everyone to participate in the auction liberally and contribute towards the noble mission”.

Union Minister of State for Culture and Parliamentary Affairs, Arjun Ram Meghwal and Union Minister of State for Culture and External Affairs Meenakashi Lekhi were also present during the briefing.

“In the last auction, people from every state and origin participated in the auction actively,” Meghwal said.

Lekhi highlighted the significance of various mementoes presented to the prime minister and how the e-auction offers an “exceptional occasion to the people to contribute to Namami Gange”.

To make the visit even more enjoyable, guided tours in general, and guided tours in sign language for specially abled have been arranged. Catalogues in Braille will also be made available. The display area will be open to the public from September 17 to October 2, the culture ministry said in a statement. The funds raised through the auction will contribute to a worthy cause, the Namami Gange Programme, the flagship project that seeks to conserve and rejuvenate our national river, it said.

(With Agency inputs)