For the 94-year-old Hiraba, prime-minister-designate Narendra Modi’s mother, it would have been a glorious moment had she been able to attend the swearing-in ceremony of her son at Rashtrapati Bhavan, but her ill health will confine her to Gandhinagar and ensure that she can only watch the proceedings on television.
Hiraba and her other sons, who have been invited to attend the function, have decided not to go. Modi’s youngest brother Pankaj said, “Hiraba has not been in the best of health, and air travel would have been difficult for her.”
Hiraba has been present at all the swearing-in ceremonies of Modi as chief minister. He had ensured it. He would also seek her blessings after winning the elections, and this time was no exception. After the results were declared, Modi went straight to seek her blessings.
He also sought her blessings before leaving for Delhi, as he had realised his mother might not be able to make it to the swearing-in ceremony.
Meanwhile, apart from Gujarat BJP leaders, including Chief Minister Anandiben Patel, the others who would be present at the swearing-in ceremony are the proposers who had accompanied Modi when he had filed his nomination from Vadodara, including tea vendor Kiran Mahida and Maharani Subhangini Gaekwad of the royal family of Vadodara.
Mahida said, “It was a historic moment for me when I was selected by the prime ministerial candidate as the proposer then, and now, the gesture of he inviting me for the swearing-in ceremony has touched me and my family immensely.”
He said he would remember these days of his life as long as he was alive.
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