Smriti: Kovind’s rise, a proof of Indian democracy’s power

The Minister for Textiles and Information and Broadcasting also said people have respect, “grudgingly or ungrudgingly,” for those who had come from the humblest of the backgrounds and made a mark with their contribution. The Rajya Sabha MP from Gujarat recalled Modi’s childhood days of selling tea in a railway station in that state, referring to his humble background. She was addressing students of Vels University at a “Sankalp se Siddhi” programme near here. 

“How many students can imagine that such a child (Modi), whose mother had to work in others’ houses cleaning utensils and working hard to make ends meet, a child who even sold tea at a railway station, could one day become prime minister of this country?”, she asked. 

“Democracy gives wings to such dreams and brings hope to so many people across the nation,” she said. Irani said that as a woman she was proud Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan was a woman. The country’s President was from the “marginalised community,” she added. 

On the various initiatives of the three-year-old NDA government, Irani said the ‘Jandhan Scheme’ was launched with the aim of ensuring every poor person had a bank account. So far, close to 300 million people have new bank accounts under this scheme, she said. 

Later, the students took the ‘Sankalp Se Siddhi’ pledge, vowing to make India free from menaces like corruption, casteism and communalism. Irani asked BJP State President Tamilisai Soundararajan, also present at the event, to administer the pledge to the students in Tamil and the latter followed suit.