Don’t let power go to your heads: Modi tells Mahayuti MLAs

Mumbai: Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who interacted with the Mahayuti legislators on Wednesday, advised them not to let the power go their heads and always remember that the power is means to serve the people.

Ever since the people of Maharashtra gave the massive mandate to the Mahayuti, PM Modi wanted to have an open dialogue with all the legislators of all the three alliance partners. On Wednesday morning he dedicated three indigenous warships to the nation and in the evening he was to inaugurate a temple in Navi Mumbai. He decided to have a dialogue with Mahayuti legislators and have lunch with them in the short interval in between the two programs. Accordingly, arrangements were made at the auditorium at the INS Angre near RBI headquarters where the PM interacted with the legislators for over 90 minutes.

The legislators were also advised not to speak to the media about their interaction with the PM. Many legislators followed the instructions and declined to divulge any information. Others, who revealed the information, too did it on the condition of anonymity. “There was nothing political about the interaction,” said deputy Chairperson of the state legislative council Dr Neelam Gorhe, while Sadabhau Khot of the Rayat Kranti Party commented that the interaction was more about do’s and don’t that the legislators are expected to observe while declining to divulge any other information.

A senior BJP MLA and a former minister termed the interaction as “Bauddhik” – a term from RSS parlance used to describe an intellectual discourse. While, a Shiv Sena MLC said that he was overwhelmed with the interaction as it ‘appeared as if a family head was talking to fellow members of the family and never appeared as if a boss is directing the subordinates’.

A BJP MLC said that the PM narrated his life events and put forth the learnings he has earned over the years. “The whole interaction was very inspiring,” she said.

The PM advised us not to lose touch masses and not let the power go to our heads after the massive mandate, said a senior BJP MLA. “The massive mandate means the loads of trust and faith people have expressed in us and the task now would be to honour their expectation. The opposition attack would be fiercer henceforth and we need to retort them through our work,” the PM told the legislators.

The PM also advised the Mahayuti legislators not to let die the quest to understand and learn new things within themselves. In this connection he also mentioned Raj Thackeray’s Gujarat tour of 2011 and praised him for the initiative. “You too should be on a lookout for any good thing happening anywhere else in the country,” the PM is learnt to have told the legislators.

The PM also gave extensive examples from his experiences in Gujarat to narrate how the power from the grass root to the top level can be held firmly and yet without letting unpopularity creep in.