LUCKNOW: The occasion was to commemorate 125 years of Swami Vivekananda's speech at the Parliament of Religion in Chicago. On Monday, as Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha (BJYM), youth wing of the BJP, went about recalling the monk who won over the world with his speech in 1893, it was Prime Minister's speech at Madison Square in New York in three years ago that found mention along with Vivekananda's.The programme, held across the state on Monday, was titled "Narendra Se Narendra Ki Ore." Swami Vivekananda was Narendranath Dutta before he took took to the life of an ascetic."Who would have thought three years ago that Swami Vivekananda's vision would turn into reality. Did anyone from India ever think of chanting `Bharat Mata Ki Jai' in the US?It was Prime Minister Narendra Modi who chanted `Bharat Mata Ki Jai' at Madison Square," said Uttar Pradesh BJP organizing secretary Sunil Bansal. Bansal, quoting Swami Vivekananda, said India would become a great country if it's people are awakened, live with high self-esteem and the country has a proper education system. representing the people of India, the PM R showed that if at all anyone in the world has to survive, it would have to befriend India. He did not hesitate in saying with pride what Vivekananda had said then -that spiritual awakening was possible only in India. Later, when the PM came out of Lord Pashupatinath Temple in Nepal, with sandalwood paste on his forehead and a rudraksh garland around his neck, he showed the world that spirituality was inbuilt in India's culture," said Bansal."The country would not flourish if 50 per cent of the population represented by females is not empowered. `Beti bachaao, beti padhao' scheme launched by the PM is a step towards this," said Bansal.Bansal also quoted Mahatma Gandhi and said that one cannot be a leader if he is shy of cleaning his locality by picking up a broom.Bansal said the Prime Minister's effort to ensure cleanliness was his way to give out a social message on the importance of cleanliness. In Allahabad, professor at Ewing Christian College Vivek Nigam said if Swami Vivekananda apprised the world of Indian culture, Modi was doing the same while addressing the Indian diaspora across the globe. "Swami Vivekananda said that Indians were people who moved from `Aham Brahmasmi' to `Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam' and Modi complemented that by saying that Indians have graduated from Upanishads to Upgrah (satellite)," said Nigam. He said Vivekananda had called for empowering the youth and the poor and Modi had done just that with schemes like Startup India and Make In India.(With inputs from Vinod Khanal in Allahabad)

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