PM Modi’s bhakts pour milk into ‘swachh’ Ganga water for his 75th birthday

Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s 75th birthday today, 17 September, was marked with a series of religious rituals devoted to him that drew comparisons with the orchestrated fandom of the North Korean dictator Kim Jong-Un (interestingly, 'North Korea' is the most trending hashtag on X today).

One ritual entailed a special dugdhabhishek (milk offering) to the Ganga river, alongside announcements of development projects for his Varanasi Lok Sabha constituency.

The dugdhabhishek involved pouring significant quantities of milk into the river Ganga.

This comes at a time when India continues to face a serious nutrition crisis, with some of the highest rates of child malnutrition in the world.

According to recent statistics from the ministry of women and child development, about 36 per cent of children under 5 years are stunted, 17 per cent are underweight, and 6 per cent are wasted. Meanwhile, more recent UN data puts the child wasting rate (acute malnutrition) in India at 18.7 per cent among children under 5 years in 2024. These figures reflect both chronic and acute undernutrition, with real consequences on growth, health and mortality.

We can only wonder that followers and supporters of PM Modi — with the Ayushman Bharat scheme to his name, and many more — did not think to direct their resources in a more helpful direction than further polluting the Ganga, with Swachh Bharat another subject close to the prime minister’s heart, by all official accounts.

Regardless, the fact is, Dr Neelkanth Tiwari, the City South MLA of Varanasi, led a ceremony at the Dashashwamedh Ghat with 108 young Vedic scholars from Annapurna Rishikul Brahmacharya Ashram and Shastrarth Mahavidyalaya. Together, they performed the dugdhabhishek and chanted Vedic mantras to pray for PM Modi’s long life and the nation’s prosperity.

A 75 kg cake is also set to be cut to mark the milestone birthday.

Religious ceremonies continued at the Baba Kashi Vishwanath temple, where seers performed the ‘sahastraarchan’ ritual, offering 1,100 lotus flowers, followed by a ‘maharudrabhishek’.

The ceremonies were intended to pray for the Prime Minister’s good health, national unity and a long tenure in office.

Supporters and fans of the PM, meanwhile, tried to overtake North Korea’s popularity by telling stories of their close encounters with Mr Modi, alongside a #MyModiStory hashtag.

Detractors were surely being churlish to wonder at front-page coverage of these grand festivities.

Other were less intemperate still, recalling the ‘retirement at 75 years’ debate within and around the RSS ecosystem.