Some kids wait in vain, others wanted more

PATNA/ MUMBAI/ RAIPUR: Many students who were eager to hear Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Teachers’ Day speech that was broadcast live on Friday could not do so, while many who could, wanted to ask him more questions.

Students at the Balak Madhya Vidyalaya, a government school in Patna, kept waiting for a TV set to arrive so they could hear Modi speak, well after the speech had begun in Delhi.

“We wanted to hear the Prime Minister,” said Vikash, a Class 6 student who waited for a TV in vain.

Unlike Vikash, Omkar Chandhere, 15, a student of Hansraj Morarji Public School at Andheri in Mumbai, watched Modi’s speech in his school auditorium with 400 other students.

“What I liked best was his frankness when interacting with the students,” he said. “He cracked jokes and connected with the students.”

“I was surprised there wasn’t a single school from Mumbai participating in the interaction,” said school principal Anjana Prakash. “We would have liked to ask the PM questions too.”

Students from the tribaldominated Dantewada district in Chhattisgarh did not have any such complaints. Fifteen students from the district’s various schools were proud and happy that they could interact with the Prime Minister.

However, 14-year-old Pragati Swarn said she would have liked to ask Modi a question, but didn’t get a chance.

“I wanted to ask the PM when Bastar will be freed of Maoist terror and violence,” said Swarn, who lost both her parents in Maoist violence. “All other things are important only when we live in peace.”