NEW DELHI: Prime Minister Narendra Modi, during a public rally in Delhi’s Kartar Nagar on Wednesday, discouraged BJP candidates from touching his feet as they were introduced on stage.
As Patparganj BJP candidate Ravinder Singh Negi approached PM Modi and attempted to touch his feet, the Prime Minister immediately reciprocated by touching Negi’s feet thrice instead, signaling against such gestures.
A minute later, Vishwas Nagar candidate Om Prakash Sharma also attempted to touch PM Modi’s feet but was stopped midway. The two exchanged a few words, with PM Modi appearing to dissuade him from making the attempt.
Ravinder Negi, the BJP councillor of Vinod Nagar in East Delhi, made headlines last year for his actions involving local shopkeepers. Videos surfaced on social media showing him visiting shops and urging shopkeepers from a particular community to display their real names on the shopfronts.
Negi’s initiative, which BJP distanced itself from, was not part of any official directive. He told shopkeepers, especially those selling dairy products, that their names should reflect their religious identity to align with the sentiments of Hindu customers during Navratri. He was seen asking a dairy vendor why his signboard read “Rawal Dairy” instead of his Muslim name, accusing him of betraying the Hindu community. Negi also confronted a street vendor for not moving his stall from a predominantly Hindu area, warning of confiscation if he didn’t comply.
Negi defended his actions, describing the drive as an awareness initiative driven by complaints from the public. He claimed that people were upset when they made payments to shops displaying Hindu names only to later discover the shopkeepers were from a different community. He stated that the drive had no party affiliation and was based on community sentiments, particularly in the run-up to Navratri, when dairy consumption rises among Hindu customers.