Modi addressing students on Teachers' Day not new, copying Obama: Cong

Chandigarh: Senior Congress leader Amarinder Singh on Tuesday took a dig at Narendra Modi over his planned interaction with school children on Teachers’ Day and said the Prime Minister was “indiscriminately trying to copy” US President Barack Obama in almost everything the latter does. [caption id=“attachment_1693855” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  PM Narendra Modi. Agencies[/caption] “It is strange. Modi shall be addressing students and not the teachers on Teachers’ Day,” Singh, who is the Congress Deputy Leader in the Lok Sabha, said in a statement here. He said the US President addressed the students of his country on September 8, 2009 and now “Mr Modi is trying to copy the same”. “He (Modi) is trying to copy Obama in utter haste and hurry,” Singh, who represents Amritsar in Lok Sabha, said. “…otherwise he should ideally be addressing teachers on Teachers’ Day and not the students for whom he could always choose some other occasion,” he said. The Congress leader said like in the US all powers are vested with the President, “Modi is trying to do the same despite India being a parliamentary democracy”. “The way he has assumed all the powers in himself whether deciding on foreign policy matters or those related to the Home Ministry, Modi has already hinted adequately that he wants to function like the head of a Presidential form of a government than like a Prime Minister who is supposed to share power with his cabinet with collective responsibility,” he said. On Teachers’ Day, in a first-of-its-kind exercise to reach out to students, Modi will give a pep-talk to about 1,000 selected students at the Manekshaw Auditorium in Delhi and interact with them, taking some questions through a video conferencing facility. The telecast would start at 3pm and will continue up to 4.45pm. The programme would be beamed live to over 18 lakh government and private schools in the country via all Doordarshan and education channels. PTI