Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday paid his first visit to his hometown Vadnagar as PM and delivered a strong message to his critics, saying Lord Shiva's blessings have given him the strength to digest poison and serve the motherland.
"Bholenath's blessings have given me the strength to digest all the poison that's come my way since 2001. I have had the strength to serve the motherland, no matter who spews venom," he said.
It was in 2001 that Modi returned from Delhi to Gujarat to become the state's Chief Minister, a post he held till he became PM in 2014.
Modi, who once sold tea at the Vadnagar railway station in Mehsana district, recalled his journey to Delhi from Gujarat. He said receiving such a warm welcome is special. He said whatever he is today is due to the values he learnt on this soil. "I have played here; I have grown up among you people," he said on the last day of his two-day Gujarat visit.
Locals lined up on either side of roads and lanes and showered flowers on the PM. "This visit will bring back several memories from my childhood," he had tweeted before the trip, his third in less than a month to Gujarat where Assembly elections are due this year-end.
PM Modi paid a nostalgic visit to his school BN Vidyalaya, bowed down, touched the ground, put a soil tilak on the forehead and greeted his old friends and neighbours.
"I am the son of this Vadnagar town and when I am coming back after a long time, my heart is filled with lots of feelings... when I see some familiar faces," he said. He said that he would go back with the villagers' blessings and assured them that he would work even harder for the nation.
He also visited Hatkeshwar (Lord Shiva) Temple, offered prayers and then inaugurated a hospital project. Later, during his address, he said Bholenath is in Vadnagar, from where his journey started. "He is also in Kashi (his Parliamentary constituency Varanasi), where I have reached now," he said.
The PM slammed the previous UPA governments for ignoring the health sector. He said the Vajpayee government had formed a health policy, but the UPA, during its 10-year rule, hated development. "We have now framed a new health policy," he said.
"We brought prices of stents down. Work is constantly being done to make healthcare affordable for the poor," he said. He also launched the Intensified Mission Indradhanush to accelerate the progress towards the goal of full immunisation coverage.
Later in the day, he addressed a public gathering in the state's Bharuch. "No matter how many corrupt people come together, it is honesty which is going to win at the end of everything," he said there after laying the foundation stone of a barrage over the Narmada river and flagging of Antyodaya Express between Udhna in Surat and Jaynagar in Bihar.
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