Ahmedabad: As part of the celebrations on Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s birthday on Friday, primary education officers of all districts in Gujarat issued identical circulars to government and aided schools to organize an essay writing competition on the theme, “My Favourite PM is Narendra Modi”.
The circular was issued by district primary education officers September 14, a day after the new chief minister Bhupendra Patel took oath of office. HT has reviewed the circular.
The circular asked all district primary schools to ensure that at least 10 students participate in the essay competition and required education officers to make a list of all participants and schools, and then rank the top three performers. The results will be declared on Saturday.
It added that the decision to hold the essay competition was taken by the Gujarat Rajya Baal Adhikar Sanrakshan Aayog (Gujarat State Child Rights Protection Commission).
The circular cited a meeting over video conference that took place earlier on Tuesday asking schools to conduct the essay competition. The competition was held for students of Classes 5 to 8.
A similar circular was also issued by municipal corporations to municipal schools in cities.
{{/usCountry}}A similar circular was also issued by municipal corporations to municipal schools in cities.
{{/usCountry}}“We just followed the instructions from the child rights commission,” a senior government official said on conditions of anonymity.
Gujarat Congress’ chief spokesperson Manish Doshi said holding such an essay competition for a living national leader was “too much”. “In this case, there is no space for opinion and the children have been asked to do write-ups praising the current prime minister. There are no choices at all,” he said.
Political analyst Ghanshyam Shah said, “We must understand that Gujarat and now the country are ruled through bureaucracy. Narendra Modi introduced this, and so even before the politicians -- in this case the new chief minister -- figured out governance, the bureaucracy was already on the job.”
Earlier on Monday morning, Gujarat Bharatiya Janata Party president CR Patil also unveiled a 71-foot cutout of PM Narendra Modi at Rajdhani Township, a residential colony, on the Mehsana-Radhanpur highway. The event was attended by newly appointed minister of state Manisha Vakil and members of parliament Shardaben Patel and Jugalji Thakore.
The party also organised several events including planting 71,000 saplings and 71 open heart surgeries as part of the PM’s birthday celebrations, according to a party statement.
Besides this, as many as 71 open heart surgeries were performed on needy children at the Shri Satya Sai Hospital on the Sarkhej-Dholka highway near Ahmedabad, In the evening, folk artist Sairam Dave performed under a Namotsav cultural event, the BJP statement said.