Modi in Riyadh: Your sweat, toil brought me here, says PM to Indian workers

PM Modi was addressing a gathering of Indian community on the first day of his two-day visit.

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Prime Minister Narendra Modi shares snacks with Indian workers at the L&T residential complex in Riyadh on Saturday. (Source: PTI)

IN a bid to reach out to the Indian blue-collar community, PM Narendra Modi Saturday told Indian workers that it is their sweat and toil that brought him to Saudi Arabia. “It is your sweat and toil that has brought me here,” he told more than 300 workers of L&T at their residential complex. “Your happiness is my happiness and when you are not happy, I feel the same.” The workers are building the metro in Riyadh.

Asking them to download the Narendra Modi app, he said, “…I do not have any work… The work is being done by 125 crore people. If you download the app, I will always be in your pocket…what else do you want?”

“Your sweat increases India’s prestige… In the future, people will say that youth from India came here and built the project,” he said during the 17-minute speech. “Letters from your families reach me… When there is good news, it gives me joy; when there is bad news, it pains me. In fact, I am grateful to His Majesty, King (Salman), whenever he praises the Indian community, my chest swells with pride,” he said.

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“You people have not only given a good reputation to India, but also have opened opportunities for Indian youth,” Modi said.

He went around shaking their hands and had some pakoras with them.

No selfies

The PM also met the Indian elite at a unique photo-op event — where selfies were banned. Since the Saudi Kingdom is sensitive to foreign leaders addressing its people, the white-collared community had brief photo-sessions in a hotel. The Indian Embassy arranged for about 25 wooden step-structures, labelled A to Y. Each structure had about 30-odd people on it. Modi went to each group for a photograph. The hall had only those steps and there was no seating arrangement. The Indian community was not allowed to carry cellphones into the hall, to avoid the selfie craze and a stampede-like situation.

Shubhajit Roy

Shubhajit Roy, Diplomatic Editor at The Indian Express, has been a journalist for more than 25 years now. Roy joined The Indian Express in October 2003 and has been reporting on foreign affairs for more than 17 years now. Based in Delhi, he has also led the National government and political bureau at The Indian Express in Delhi — a team of reporters who cover the national government and politics for the newspaper. He has got the Ramnath Goenka Journalism award for Excellence in Journalism ‘2016. He got this award for his coverage of the Holey Bakery attack in Dhaka and its aftermath. He also got the IIMCAA Award for the Journalist of the Year, 2022, (Jury’s special mention) for his coverage of the fall of Kabul in August 2021 — he was one of the few Indian journalists in Kabul and the only mainstream newspaper to have covered the Taliban’s capture of power in mid-August, 2021. ... Read More

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