India : India saw a day of extravaganza for thousands of supporters of Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday, who lit 71,000 earthen lamps, cut a 71-feet-long cake and prepared a giant 71-kilogram traditional sweet to celebrate his 71st birthday.
Mr Modi, a right-wing Hindu nationalist, is counted as independent India’s most powerful and popular leader, whose strongman image has won him hordes of friends and detractors in the culturally and religiously diverse country of 1.4 billion people.
#Happy Bday Modiji –’Ji’ an honorific used to show respect — was trending on Twitter and Facebook, with the Prime Minister’s colleagues and supporters showering him with praise and praying for his long life.
Even opposition leaders, including his arch rival and critic from Congress party, Rahul Gandhi congratulated him on Twitter, along with greetings from Tibetan spiritual leader Dalai Lama.
Members of his ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) organised scores of Hindu fire rituals to celebrate the leader’s birthday and pledged to support his endeavours.
One artist created an 2.4-metre-long portrait of Mr Modi using food grains and another made a giant sand sculpture with seashells.
His Hindu nationalist party will organise blood donation camps, cleanliness drives and distribute 140 million food packets with his photograph over the next three weeks to commemorate the birthday and his two-decades in public life.
Some 50 million “Thank You” postcards will be sent to him by his party workers as an acknowledgement for his contribution to the country.
