Chaos at 'Selfie with Daughter' event on PM Modi's birthday

Ahmedabad, Sep 17: A programme organised by local BJP leaders of Bapunagar area of the city to celebrate Prime Minister Narendra Modi's birthday took an ugly turn today after large number of women stormed onto the stage as organisers abruptly announced cancellation of the event, moments before it was about to begin this afternoon.

During the chaos and protests by women, the stage suddenly collapsed, which injured several women, who came there with their daughters to take part in the 'Selfie with Daughter' programme, organised by Madadgar Pariwar, an NGO run by vice president of Gujarat BJP's Yuva Morcha Prakash Gurjar.

According to Gurjar, he had been planning to organise the event for the last one month and roped in several schools and local women residents to set a world record of maximum selfies of mothers and daughters taken at one place.

"To set a Guinness World Record about Selfie with Daughter on Prime Minister's birthday, we had distributed forms among local women and asked them to come here today. We had also roped in 30 schools and invited girl students with their mothers to take part in the event," said Gurjar.

The event was organised at a hall in Bapunagar area of eastern part of city, where these participants were supposed to gather at 1 PM.

"We did not expect that such a large number of participants would turn up, which has led to chaos. Thus, I have decided to cancel today's program," Gurjar told reporters after making an announcement on the same from stage at around 1.30 PM, when the program was supposed to start with lighting of lamp.

After learning about the cancellation of the event, angry women, mostly from lower middle class, rushed near the stage and tried to talk to organisers, who then made a quick exit.

According to the women, they were promised earlier that a gift will be given to them along with a form to avail various government benefits, such as Jan Dhan Yojna and widow pension.

When almost 100 such women were present on the stage, it could not bear the weight and suddenly collapsed.

Though some women received minor injuries, the mishap left no one severely injured. The collapse further fuelled anger among women, who claimed that they were cheated by the organisers.

PTI