PM Narendra Modi hails Yogi Adityanath for rising above superstition

Prime Minister Narendra Modi hailed Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath for his record in office and ignoring the superstition attached to incumbents visiting Noida.

“I want to congratulate the very energetic chief minister Yogi Adityanath whose focus on good governance is taking UP to new heights-- I am very happy,” Modi said while inaugurating a new line of the Delhi Metro. “Due to his dress, few people find it fashionable to believe Adityanath is not modern enough but it is Adityanath who has done what chief ministers of UP did not d o—he has come to Noida.”

Visiting Noida is supposed to be unlucky for an Uttar Pradesh chief minister and most have avoided doing so until now.


“Faith is important but blind faith is not desirable,” the Prime Minister said. “ If anybody thinks not going to a place will prolong their tenure and visiting a place will curtail it, such a person does not deserve to be a chief minister. Unfortunately, there were superst itions associated with Noida and in his own style, Adityanath has risen above these superstitions and come to Noida.”

Modi cited his own example when he had become chief minister of Gujarat for the first time and was told of a few places where the state’s chief ministers didn’t go because they were inauspicious. “I was clear. I would go to all those places in my first year itself. Driven by blind faith and superstition, leaders never went to places for decades. How unfortunate is that ,” PM said.

The event had run into controversy because Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal was not invited for the inaugural although the Magenta line runs from Botanical Garden in Noida to Kalkaji Mandir in Delhi. The BJP said that since the event was being held by the Uttar Pradesh government and not the Delhi Metro Railway Corp., it was the state’s prerogative to choose the invitees. The Aam Aadmi Party said it was an insult of the federal structure of the country.