Cockroach Janta Party co-convenor Saurav Das said he received an email from the daughter of an Anganwadi worker in Madhya Pradesh, claiming that Anganwadi workers there have been “ordered” to gather and praise Prime Minister Narendra Modi by lighting diyas and taking pictures of the “celebration” on his 76th birthday (today) or face action.
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Anganwadi workers were asked to gather rural women, distribute lighted diyas and photograph them ‘celebrating’ PM Modi’s birthday, as well as record videos of women praising the Prime Minister and his yojanas, according to the email that he shared on X.
UP deputy chief ministers Keshav Prasad Maurya and Brajesh Pathak, and programme convenor VD Sharma, the Khajuraho MP, will also be present, HT earlier reported. “Hi Saurav, my mother works as an Anganwadi worker under the MP Government. For the upcoming 17th, which is also Modi Ji’s birthday, she and other Anganwadi workers have been instructed to gather rural women, distribute lighted diyas, and take pictures of them ‘celebrating’ the PM’s birthday. They’ve also been asked to record videos of women praising the Prime Minister and his yojanas,” the email read. “All of this is being pushed internally through these small government departments. This needs to be called out. It is deeply authoritarian. She and other workers across the state are being forced to do this under the threat of action against them and their jobs.
She also learned that cities like Jabalpur and Khajuraho are organising massive diya sessions with over 2.5 lakh diyas as part of the birthday celebrations,” the email added. The party will launch a nationwide outreach campaign on September 17 to mark Modi’s 25 years in public life.
Built around the theme of “seva” (service), the campaign will run until October 17 and involve nearly every level of the party and government machinery, from booth workers to chief ministers. Defence minister Rajnath Singh and Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath will flag off the “Seva Sankalp Bike Yatra” from Varanasi’s Rudraksh International Convention Centre on September 17 to Gujarat’s Vadnagar, Modi’s birthplace, in the presence of Naidu, Union minister Chirag Paswan and UP BJP president Pankaj Chaudhary, said Kashi region BJP chief Ashok Chaurasia. Under “Kahani Badlav Ki”, party workers will fan out to document the stories of 2.5 million citizens whose lives, the party says, have been transformed by government schemes. Through the “Viksit Bharat Sankalp Yatra”, 300 to 500 influencers and content creators will be taken to sites the party considers examples of visible change, from the improved security situation in Bastar to Gujarat’s GIFT City and innovation hubs such as iCreate.
