Did Delhi do as told on Modi’s birthday? | Vibe Check with Abhinandan Sekhri

The day after Narendra Modi’s 76th birthday, which the BJP marked as “Sewa Diwas” with the month-long Seva Sankalp Abhiyan outreach campaign and an “Ashirwad Ka Diya” at more than 500 prominent locations, Abhinandan Sekhri went out for his second “vibe check” (the first was at the CJP protest) to find out whether the people of Delhi were lighting diyas, donating blood or doing any of the hundred different things the ruling BJP were asking people to do on Modi’s birthday.  

He started at Ekta Vihar, a colony in the RK Puram area of Delhi right opposite one housing some of the country’s most senior bureaucrats. The answers were mixed. Some residents lit diyas or put up lights; others didn’t know it was Modi’s birthday. Children said their school hadn’t invited them. A man recently arrived from Rajasthan hadn’t lit one and said he wouldn’t have even if he’d known. Another resident said, “We didn't do anything,” and pointed to a DTC drivers’ strike that had kept buses off the road.

Just across from the bureaucrats’ colony, everyday problems dominated: overflowing sewers, water stagnant for around a year and a half, and uncleared rubbish. A resident said his wife’s wheelchair has tipped over twice; “We are living in hell here,” said another.

Outside the colony, the replies were just as scattered. A JNU PhD scholar said he had spent the day on his thesis, “lighting a lamp” within himself and silently wishing Modi well. A palmist said the PM had already become a great figure, and that some consider him an avatar, though he is human. Two young men objected to taxpayers’ money going on diyas and oil, and to a circular they said made participation mandatory for students; they called it coercion. A man who shares Modi’s birthday said he had lit lamps for both of them. After asking a bunch of people, Abhinandan said, “I haven't found a single person who donated blood.”  

Watch the full vibe check to see how Delhiites felt the day after Modi’s birthday. 

Producer: Chanchal Gupta; Camera: Ashish Anand and Chanchal Gupta; Edit: Satish Kumar; Graphics: Sukriti

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