Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday said that while most people associate 9/11 with the New York terror attacks, the date was also about Swami Vivekanada’s message of love and brotherhood at the Parliament on Religions in Chicago.
“There was a 9/11, 125 years ago, when a young man from this nation, of about your age, gave a speech dressed in saffron clothes,” the prime minister told students during a convention in New Delhi on Monday. “With just a few words, a youngster from India won over the world and showed the world the power of oneness.”
The students’ convention was organised to mark the 125th anniversary of Swami Vivekananda’s Chicago speech and Bharatiya Janata Party ideologue Deendayal Upadhyaya’s centenary celebrations.
Modi also spoke about the Swachh Bharat Abhiyaan, and said Indians do not have the right to chant Vande Mataram if they spit and throw garbage on the roads. He asked the students to take the Clean India initiative forward.
“I want to specially mention all those people who are working tirelessly to keep India clean,” The Times of India quoted him as saying. “I’ve said this before and I will say it again. Pehle shauchalya, phir devalaya (First toilets, then temples).”
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