Is your meeting more important than school?

Upset about having to miss school because his bus was to be used for Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s rally on Tuesday, a boy in Madhya Pradesh wrote to him: ‘Is your meeting more important than school?’

Class 8 student Devansh Jain’s impassioned letter, which went viral on social media, has resulted in the administration withdrawing its order asking schools to send their buses for the PM’s event.

PM Modi will visit the birthplace of revolutionary leader Chandrashekhar Azad at Bhabhra village before launching a campaign to mark Independence Day.

Young Devansh was dismayed when his teacher told him that school would be shut on Tuesday and Wednesday as buses would be needed to ferry people for the prime minister’s event in Alirajpur.

In his letter to the PM, Devansh commented: ‘I have listened to your addresses in America attended by a lot of people - but they didn’t come to the venue in school buses?’

He tempered his grievance by describing himself as a Modi fan and shared that he had never missed any edition of his radio talk ‘Mann Ki Baat’, even to the point of fighting with classmates who teased him about it.

Devansh also requested the prime minister to tell ‘Shivraj Mama’ - as Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan likes to be referred to - not to divert school buses as ‘you are not like Congress leaders and you are concerned about our studies and future.’

He wrote: ‘If you grant my wish, then I will be able to boast that for meetings addressed by my Modi uncle, crowds come on their own and are not managed.’