Modi urges supporters to take ''main bhi chowkidar'' pledge, draws ridicule from Rahul
New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi Saturday urged his supporters to take the 'main bhi chowkidar' (I too am watchman) pledge and said he was not alone in the fight against graft and social evils, drawing ridicule from Congress president Rahul Gandhi.
"Your Chowkidar is standing firm & serving the nation. But, I am not alone. Everyone who is fighting corruption, dirt, social evils is a Chowkidar. Everyone working hard for the progress of India is a Chowkidar. Today, every Indian is saying-#MainBhiChowkidar," the prime minister wrote on Twitter.
He also posted a short video to drive home his message.
Soon after, Gandhi mocked Modi and tweeted, "Defensive tweet Mr Modi! You feeling a little guilty today" while a tagging a picture of Modi along with businessmen such as Vijay Mallya, Nirav Modi and Mehul Choksi, Anil Ambani and Gautam Adani.
The Congress president earlier alleged that Modi only served the interests of his industrialist-friends.
Modi has often described himself as a "chowkidar" who would neither allow corruption nor get corrupted himself.
Gandhi has been repeatedly hurling the "chowkidar chor hai" (watchman is the thief) jibe at Modi to claim irregularities and favouritism in the Rafale fighter jet deal, a charge the BJP-led government has rejected.
Congress chief spokesperson Randeep Surjewala hit back at Modi accusing him of being the "only chowkidar who is a thief".
"One who wears a suit worth Rs 10 lakh and who helps Bank fraudsters Modi-Mehul-Mallya, one who wasts public money to the tune of Rs 52,000 crore for his own propaganda, one who spends Rs 2,010 crore to travel to 84 countries on people's money and one who helped in theft of Rs 30,000 crore in rafale jet deal, only one Chowkidar is a thief," he said in a tweet in Hindi.
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Two injuries, one DNF, a DQ as India end messy World Relays campaign
Gaborone (Botswana) (PTI): Amoj Jacob and Ragul Kumar got injured during the men's 4x400m and 4x100 races respectively as India ended their World Athletics Relays campaign in disappointment on the second day of competitions here on Sunday.
The Indian camp had high hopes of making the 2027 World Championships in the men's 4x400m relay but the team did not finish (DNF) the race as Jacob suffered cramps and pulled out of the race after taking the baton from the first leg runner Dharamveer Choudhary. Rajesh Ramesh and Vishal TK were to run in the third and fourth legs.
Those teams which could not qualify for the 2027 Beijing World Championships by reaching the final round of each of the six relay events on Saturday were given another chance in the second qualification round on Sunday.
The top two teams in each of the two heats (in all six relay events) booked the Beijing ticket on Sunday.
India will now have to try and qualify for the World Championships through the Top Lists of the World Athletics, which is a long and tedious process.
In the men's 4x100m race, third leg runner Ragul Kumar fell down the track after failing to hand over the baton inside the exchange zone to fourth leg runner Gurindervir Singh, which clearly showed the lack of coordination among the runners.
Harsh Santosh Raut and Animesh Kujur ran the first two legs.
The Indian quartet was disqualified and Kumar was seen being taken away from the Field of Play with the help of the volunteers.
It was a comedy of errors in the case of the women's 4x100m race, which saw the baton being dropped during an exchange between first leg runner Tamanna and second runner Nithya Gandhe, though the Indians finished the race in 53.09 seconds.
Gandhe started running quite a distance, but after realising that the baton was not in her hand, she turned and ran back to pick it up.
The only silver-lining for the Indian contingent was the national record time in the mixed 4x100m relay race, though the quartet of Ragul Kumar, Nithya Gandhe, Animesh Kujur and Sneha SS finished sixth in heat number two with a time of 41.35 seconds, bettering the previous national mark of 42.30 seconds set in March in Chandigarh.
The mixed 4x400m relay quartet of Theerthesh P Shetty, Kumari Saloni, Nihal William and Rashdeep Kaur ended at fifth in heat number one with a time of 3 minutes and 19.40 seconds.
On Saturday, all the five Indian relay teams had failed to make it to the respective final rounds and thus missed out on the 2027 World Championships berths.
