CHENNAI: When an 89-year-old organisation holds very dear a note written in its visitor’s register, it can only be safely assumed that the note was written by a colossus of a personality. The Shri Gujarati Mandal Chennai has for three years prized such an entry, which has become even more hallowed since Monday evening. When Narendra Modi took his oath as Prime Minister of the country, the entry he wrote in the visitor’s book of the Mandal, raised even further in the esteem of its members.
Modi’s ascension to the top executive post of the country has certainly sparked a Modi wave of a different kind, one of pride. He has become the second Gujarati to occupy the narrow corridor of power at the very top, after Morarji Desai after the Emergency, in the late 1970s. That collective pride that the Gujaratis feel towards Modi is evidently reciprocated in the note he wrote to the Gujarati Mandal.
“The fragrance of Gujarat is spread by the humanitarian work of Gujaratis, who win the hearts of of the local people, no matter where in the world they go,” read Modi’s note, handwritten in Gujarati. He then heaped praise on the Gujarati Mandal for its contribution to the golden jubilee celebrations of the state of Gujarat in 2010-11. “I congratulate you on the work you have done during the Swarnim Gujarat celebrations. Abhinandan,” Modi wrote in the visitor’s register on November 12, 2010.
Prime Minister or not, Modi seems to have found a place in the hearts of Chennai’s Gujarati community. Office bearers of the Gujarati Mandal say with obvious pride that every time Modi visits Chennai, he asks to meet them. “After Gandhiji, Sardar Vallabhai Patel and Morarji Desai, Modi is a gem of Gujarat,” says Suresh J Parekh, a secretary of the Gujarati Mandal Chennai.
“He makes it a point to meet us each time he comes to Chennai,” says a pleased-looking Ramesh R Bhatt, vice president of the Mandal. “He has come to our office once. Other times, we have met him at his hotel or at the BJP office. The last time we met him was in September 2013 at Tiruchy airport, when he had come there for the rally. The two times he has come to Chennai in 2014, we have been unable to meet him because of protocol,” he adds.
Another officer bearer recalled Modi’s declaration of his vision for India. “When we met him at the Swarnim Gujarat celebration in 2011, he spoke to us of his vision for India as ‘Swalambi Bharat, Shashaktha Bharat aur Swabhimani Bharat’ (Self-sufficient India, Self-powered India and Self-respecting India),” says Jaisukhlal L Vakil, secretary of the Mandal.
The members also expressed confidence that Modi would help India progress. “It is a journey from Vadnagar to Gandhinagar to Delhi Mahanagar. We congratulate Narendrabhai Modiji on taking charge as the Prime Minister. We are proud that a son of the Gujarat soil has risen to become Prime Minister. India will definitely shine under his leadership. We offer our congratulations and best wishes to him,” says Parekh, as his colleagues agree wholeheartedly.