<p class="title">It turned out to be an agonising wait for many as they counted the minutes to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s address to the nation to convey an “important message”.</p>.<p class="bodytext">As the speech over television, radio and social media got delayed, speculation mounted across the social and political spectrum in Lucknow, the capital of the politically sensitive state of Uttar Pradesh.</p>.<p class="bodytext">"Yeh kya karney jaa rahen hain? (What's he going to do)," wondered Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav, who was chatting with media persons at the party headquarters on Wednesday.</p>.<p class="bodytext">Once the cat was out of the bag, pat came his reaction.</p>.<p class="bodytext">"Today @narendramodi got himself an hour of free TV & divert(ed) nation's attention away from issues on ground #Unemployment #RuralCrisis & #WomensSecurity by pointing at the sky," he tweeted.</p>.<p class="bodytext">Close on his heels, Bahujan Samaj Party supremo Mayawati, who is the SP's alliance partner, accused Modi of playing politics over India's anti-satellite missile capability.</p>.<p class="bodytext">"Congratulations to Indian defence scientists for the successful experiment of shooting down a satellite in the space. But the prime minister playing politics under its garb for electoral gains is most condemnable," she said in her tweet in Hindi. </p>.<p class="bodytext">"The honourable election commission should definitely take cognizance of this," Mayawati tweeted.</p>.<p class="bodytext">Congress spokesperson Mukesh Singh Chauhan questioned the timing of the announcement. </p>.<p class="bodytext">Rinku, a tea vendor in the busy Hazratganj commercial zone, said he overheard people discussing something while sipping tea before the announcement.</p>.<p class="bodytext">But he could not make sense of the announcement, he said.</p>.<p class="bodytext">"Certainly, it was not a 'dhamaka' as the note-ban announcement," the 40-year-old said.</p>.<p class="bodytext">This was a reference to the memories of that fateful November 2016 evening, when Modi announced the demonetisation of high-value currency notes, sending people running to the ATMs.</p>.<p class="bodytext">Modi's announcement on Wednesday did not seem to have evoked much excitement on the Lucknow University campus, with many students yet to understand its importance.</p>.<p class="bodytext">There was a buzz around the Lucknow Municipal Corporation office.</p>.<p class="bodytext">"People thought it's again going to be something like the note-ban,” said contractor Manoj Kumar Mishra.</p>.<p class="bodytext">Local lawyer Hemant Upadhya said there was some discussion ahead of the PM's address, but nothing later about the message.</p>
<p class="title">It turned out to be an agonising wait for many as they counted the minutes to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s address to the nation to convey an “important message”.</p>.<p class="bodytext">As the speech over television, radio and social media got delayed, speculation mounted across the social and political spectrum in Lucknow, the capital of the politically sensitive state of Uttar Pradesh.</p>.<p class="bodytext">"Yeh kya karney jaa rahen hain? (What's he going to do)," wondered Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav, who was chatting with media persons at the party headquarters on Wednesday.</p>.<p class="bodytext">Once the cat was out of the bag, pat came his reaction.</p>.<p class="bodytext">"Today @narendramodi got himself an hour of free TV & divert(ed) nation's attention away from issues on ground #Unemployment #RuralCrisis & #WomensSecurity by pointing at the sky," he tweeted.</p>.<p class="bodytext">Close on his heels, Bahujan Samaj Party supremo Mayawati, who is the SP's alliance partner, accused Modi of playing politics over India's anti-satellite missile capability.</p>.<p class="bodytext">"Congratulations to Indian defence scientists for the successful experiment of shooting down a satellite in the space. But the prime minister playing politics under its garb for electoral gains is most condemnable," she said in her tweet in Hindi. </p>.<p class="bodytext">"The honourable election commission should definitely take cognizance of this," Mayawati tweeted.</p>.<p class="bodytext">Congress spokesperson Mukesh Singh Chauhan questioned the timing of the announcement. </p>.<p class="bodytext">Rinku, a tea vendor in the busy Hazratganj commercial zone, said he overheard people discussing something while sipping tea before the announcement.</p>.<p class="bodytext">But he could not make sense of the announcement, he said.</p>.<p class="bodytext">"Certainly, it was not a 'dhamaka' as the note-ban announcement," the 40-year-old said.</p>.<p class="bodytext">This was a reference to the memories of that fateful November 2016 evening, when Modi announced the demonetisation of high-value currency notes, sending people running to the ATMs.</p>.<p class="bodytext">Modi's announcement on Wednesday did not seem to have evoked much excitement on the Lucknow University campus, with many students yet to understand its importance.</p>.<p class="bodytext">There was a buzz around the Lucknow Municipal Corporation office.</p>.<p class="bodytext">"People thought it's again going to be something like the note-ban,” said contractor Manoj Kumar Mishra.</p>.<p class="bodytext">Local lawyer Hemant Upadhya said there was some discussion ahead of the PM's address, but nothing later about the message.</p>