Time to take 'rashtra pratishtha' to new heights, says Modi in UP

The "pran pratishtha" or consecration of the Ram Temple done, it is now time to take "rashtra pratishtha" or nation's prestige, to new heights, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on Thursday, asserting that he only sounded the bugle of development and not elections, as the ordinary citizen was already doing the latter for him.

- S Raju

Modi was addressing a rally in Bulandshahr town in Uttar Pradesh after launching projects worth over 20,000 crore. This is his first public rally after he threw open the Ram Mandir in Ayodhya earlier this week, fulfilling a decades-old electoral promise of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

In the 36-minute speech, the PM also spoke about the importance of "Modi ki guarantee" among the people, and remembered party stalwart Kalyan Singh, who was one of the early leaders of the temple movement in the 1990s.

"I saw in the media that Modi will sound the election bugle in Bulandshahr. Modi sounds the bugle of development, Modi sounds the bugle for the welfare of the last person in the queue. Modi neither needed to sound the poll bugle earlier nor does he need it now and will not need it in the future. People keep doing it for him," he said.

"When people sound the bugle for him, Modi does not need to spend time in it, he spends time in serving the people," the PM added.