New Delhi: Pakistan-origin woman Qamar Mohsin Shaikh, who has been living in India for the past 35 years, is in awe of her ‘rakhi’ brother Prime Minister Narendra Modi. She credits him for everything she is today.
Currently, she lives in Ahmedabad.
Shaikh travelled to Delhi on Monday to participate in the Hindu festival of rakhi, which celebrates sibling bonds. On this day girls and women tie a thread on their brother’s wrist as a symbol of unshakeable bonds. The brothers in turn offer their sisters a small present.
Shaikh has been trying a rakhi thread on Modi’s wrist every year for the past 23 years.
“I have been tying rakhi to Narendra Bhai for the last 23 years. I am extremely excited to be able to do it this time too,” Shaikh, who came to India from Pakistan after her marriage, told a news channel in Delhi.
School children tying rakhis on the wrist of Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Raksha Bandhan, in New Delhi. PTI
What made this year’s festival special for her was the fact that she had thought Modi would be too busy and she would not get to meet him.
But to her surprise, Shaikh said, she got a call two days ago from Modi and, “I was very happy to know that [he would be available] and I started preparing for Raksha Bandhan”.
She said Modi spent a few seconds with each visitor who had come to greet him and tie a rakhi, but “I was surprised and extremely happy that he spent more time with me”.
“I told him whatever I am today is because of you. He put his hand on my head to bless me. He asked me about my son, Sufian, and my husband, Mohsin. I feel like the luckiest and happiest person in the world.”
Shaikh said her first Raksha Bandhan with Modi was when he was a Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) worker.
“When I first tied rakhi to Narendra Bhai, he was a karyakarta [worker] but with his sheer hard work and vision, he has become the Prime Minister,” she said.
“This relationship is now 23 years old. I am proud to be a sister of the Prime Minister Modi,” Shaikh told Zee News.
She said she was apprehensive when she came from Pakistan and married an Indian man. “But life became easier when I got a brother like Narendra Bhai. He has never made me feel that I don’t have my brother around.”
Asked what gift she wanted from Modi on Raksha Bandhan, Shaik said: “I just need his blessings. His blessings are what count the most. His blessings are with me and that is why I am here. I will always remember him. His hand is behind my every success.”
She also shared how Modi would express the desire to see the paintings drawn by her husband and how he would also joke with her son, who she says is a swimmer and calls the Prime Minister “maama [uncle]”.
