Twitter rage at Modi’s visit, people call it ‘City Modiful’

Calling it VVIPism, a large number of people criticised the decision to postpone the exams. “Education department expects full attendance in schools to watch Modi’s live interaction but on his arrival in the city, schools are shut? Why this drama?” read a tweet.

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A lot of people tweeted that the Prime Minister should have scheduled his visit on a Sunday so that the schools would have remained open on Friday. A tweet read, “It’s a shame. It has never happened in history of India. Just because PM is coming, schools are closed. What purpose did it serve?”

A city resident had posted on Facebook, “Why Chandigarh was in a siege? Had authorities forgotten that Mr Narendra Modi is a Pradhan Sevak?” Another resident tweeted that it was a huge shame when a PR event was the reason for postponing exams in schools. An official function becoming a political function invited sharp criticism as one of the tweets read, “Wished to see the city decorated with national flags not the BJP ones. You are representative of entire nation and not a single party. Sad.” The other tweet read, “Holding up traffic due to VIP movement is painful to the ordinary citizens and official function given a political colour not acceptable.”

Not only the schools but the crematoriums were also closed during the PM’s visit. A lot of residents tweeted, “Crematoriums closed. Will the dead man rise and protest against Modi?” Similarly, another tweet read, “Closing crematoriums in Chandigarh during Modi’s visit is also to prevent those who died waiting for Achche Din from creating havoc.” However, when the Prime Minister tweeted to apologise for the inconvenience caused to the residents due to his visit, one of the comments was, “Sir, you are our Prime Minister not like Obama, for whom poor people from South Mumbai area were asked to leave.”

To the PM’s tweet, many people commented that no inconvenience was caused since Chandigarh had a good traffic system and schools were only closed to avoid any inconvenience. Local MP Kirron Kher and BJP city president Sanjay Tandon tweeted pictures with Modi at the rally ground while Congress leader Pawan Bansal tweeted, “PM’s Chandigarh visit: inaugurate airport that will operate after more than 1 month, hand over keys of flats, not yet complete, BJP rally.”