Modi is popular even among ideological opponents!

New Delhi, April 09: Several media organistaions from time to time write about Prime Minister Narendra Modi's popularity since he assumed power in 2014.

He has completed five years in the office and now seeking the second term as prime minister in the upcoming Lok Sabha elections.

Much to the dismay of the opposition parties, several surveys say that Modi is the first choice of people as next prime minister.

However, an event on Monday in the national capital actually gives a real idea of Modi's popularity.

The event was to mark the 45th anniversary of Jayaprakash Narayan Movement, popularly known as JP Movement. It was organised at Gandhi Shanti Pratishthan wherein noted socialist leaders and likeminded people were present. Mauritius Ambassador to India Jagdishwar Govardhan was Chief Guest of the function.

The noted socialist leaders and thinkers remembered JP and his ideology and highlighted how this ideology was being sidelined in the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Modi rule.

When Govardhan started his speech then he also recounted the role of JP in changing the politics of India. He, unlike other speakers, was highly appreciative of Prime Minister Modi and his various schemes. While the people sitting on the dais were not impressed, the surprising part was that Govardhan was getting applause from the socialist gathering as he spoke about Modi.

Later, a noted socialist leader and thinker told this scribe: "We may like it or not, the fact of the matter is that Prime Minister Modi is popular even among ideological opponents."

The leader, who travels a lot across the country, also said, "Wherever I go, I see the popularity of Modi is still intact and the common man likes him and his work."

JP was an Indian independence activist, theorist, socialist and political leader, remembered especially for leading the mid-1970s opposition against prime minister Indira Gandhi, for whose overthrow he called a "total revolution".

During the tenure of then prime minister Indira Gandhi, the country witnessed high inflation, unemployment and lack of supplies and essential commodities in 1974. Jayaprakash Narayan gave a call for social justice and demanded the dissolution of the Bihar assembly. The Bihar government used brutal force to suppress the movement and on March 18, 1974, police fired on unarmed demonstrators in which eight people were killed. JP led a silent procession at Patna on April 8, 1974, at the age of 72, but the procession was again lathicharged.

On 5 June 1974, JP addressed a large crowd at Gandhi Maidan in Patna, and declared: "This is a revolution, friends! We are not here merely to see the Vidhan Sabha dissolved. That is only one milestone on our journey, but we have a long way to go..."

It was during the JP movement; Indira Gandhi had imposed Emergency in 1975. The BJP has its root in the Janata Party that overthrew Indira Gandhi government in 1977 general elections.