Prime Minister Narendra Modi accepted the Lokmanya Tilak National Award despite the disparate, patched-up opposition coalition called I.N.D.I.A threatening to show black flags. But what everyone is talking about is how Congress leader Dr Rohit Tilak took on the Congress ecosystem to ensure that PM Modi was nominated for the award.
About a month ago the decision of the Tilak Smarak Mandir Trust (TSMT) to confer the prestigious award on PM Modi sparked off fierce opposition within the Maharashtra Congress.
The Congress party’s Pune unit objected to Modiji being given the award on the grounds that the said Trust is controlled by a Congressman Dr Rohit Tilak – a descendant of the iconic freedom fighter and academician Lokmanya Bal Gangadhar Tilak.
Speaking to Times Now, Arvind Shinde the Pune Congress city chief had said, “Our (party) president, our party workers, everyone is opposing Prime Minister Modi’s undemocratic methods and simultaneously our own party office-bearers decides to felicitate the PM in the name of Lokmanya Tilak. That is contradictory.”
The Hindu reports that according to Arvind Shinde, PM Modi had not emulated any of Lokmanya Bal Gangadhar Tilak’s ideals and that the award was being conferred upon him at a time when Congress leader and Nehru-Gandhi scion Rahul Gandhi along with party cadre was “fighting the BJP on the streets and the central agencies were being unleashed upon opposition leaders by the PM-Modi-led Centre.”
Congress leader Anant Gadgil told The Print that the announcement of the award to PM Modi defeats the purpose of the Congress party’s campaign against the Modi Government.
“The Congress’ stand is that the Modi government has not done any work. But, by giving him an award, you are praising his work and accepting that he has done good work. So, the party’s karyakartas (workers) are not happy,” he told The Print.
But Rohit Tilak was staunch on the decision. He spoke at large about how for Tilak, Swaraj (self-rule or self-governance) was of extreme importance and his insistence on Swadeshi or Made-in-India goods for Indians as well as his credo “Swaraj (freedom/independence) is my birthright and I shall have it!” speak volumes about his principles. TSMT vice-president Rohit Tilak told Times Now,”The same vision we are seeing with our prime minister – developing our own businesses to make India Atmanirbhar (self-sufficient) Bharat.”
Rohit Tilak added that the Lokmanya Tilak national award is given annually since 1983 on August 1, the death anniversary of and in memory of the revolutionary and nationalist freedom fighter Lokmanya Bal Gangadhar Tilak (1856-1920) and people from various walks of life have been honoured with the same. PM Modi is the 41st recipient in a list of notable others like ex-President Pranab Mukherjee, former prime minister Dr Manmohan Singh, and the late and former PMs Atal Behari Vajpayee and Indira Gandhi, Rahul Kumar Bajaj, Infosys founder NR Narayana Murthy, ISRO scientist G Madhavan, socialist leader SM Joshi, Sharad Pawar etc. In 2021, Dr Cyrus Poonawalla, chairman of Serum Institute of India (SII) was honoured with the prestigious award for his contribution towards society by manufacturing the Covisheild vaccine that helped India and the world fight the coronavirus pandemic.
Dr Rohit Tilak, despite being a Congressman, spoke glowingly about PM Modi. The speech that Dr Rohit Tilak tendered while reading out what has made the world sit up and hail the visionary leader that PM Modi is. Tilak praised Modi’s policies that transformed the lives of millions and led India on to the path to progress.
The speech by Rohit Tilak has made netizens quip that after such a stirring speech, Rohit Tilak may have whipped up trouble for himself in the Congress fold.
रोहित टिळकांचं भाषण ऐकून मला तरी त्यांच्या पुढील ‘काँग्रेस’ करियर ची चिंता वाटत आहे #पुणे #pune pic.twitter.com/a0ieMkagWX
— Prasad Joshi (@prahappy) August 1, 2023
Right after accepting the award, the PM declared that he had decided to dedicate the award to the 140 crore Indians and donate the award money of Rupees one lakh to the ‘Namami Gange’ project.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xsjk_mlV5Dw
Who attended the function?
PM Modi shared the dais with not just Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde and Deputy CMs Devendra Fadnavis and Ajit Pawar, but also NCP chief Sharad Pawar. In fact, it is important to mention that Ajit Dada – who had been feeling fatigued and wanted to rest skipped numerous important functions in Maharashtra on Sunday and Monday but made it to the award function. This also happened to be the first time that Sharad Pawar and his politically estranged nephew Ajit Pawar were on the same stage since the latter rebelled earlier last month and joined the Shinde-Fadnavis government in Maharashtra with a clutch of NCP MLAs.
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