Tags:
Journalism of Courage
The day I see Allah in Modis eyes and Modi sees Bhagwan in my eyes,India will grow. This was Union Minister for New and Renewable Energy Farooq Abdullah speaking,looking straight at Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi,seated a few metres from him while they shared the panel in Ahmedabad on Thursday.
Abdullah was addressing an audience at the IIM-A when he spoke of how renewable energy sources such as the sun,the wind,water and the earth were once worshipped as gods and how we have forgotten them for fossil fuels.
The minister then veered into how,for him,a Musalman,the present month is the month of Ramadan,when we received the holy book,the Quran,from Ram.
This Ram I mean is Viwakaram. This Ram is Modis Ram,and this Ram is my Ram, he said.
He then went on to say that India needs communal harmony to progress and that he and Modi need to look into each others eyes and see their gods in them.
When the Union minister concluded his speech and headed back to his seat,most of the other dignitaries on the panel stood up.
Modi,however,kept seating but turned slightly in his chair and held out his hand. The two shook hands.
Later,Modi too addressed the audience but stayed clear of the subject of communal harmony,just saying that Abdullahs ministry was always setting targets for the country and Gujarat kept on meeting these.
Abdullah,who could be seen listening intently to the chief minister,later took out his iPhone to click take a picture of Modi from his seat.
