PM Modi to spend Diwali with ITBP jawans

Continuing with his practice of spending Diwali with security personnel deployed in frontier locations, Prime Minister Narendra Modi will celebrate the festival this time with ITBP troops at a remote border post guarding the China border in Uttrakhand.

Mr Modi had celebrated his first Diwali in 2014 with Army troops deployed in Siachen, and the next year he visited troops in Punjab along the Pakistan border. On Sunday , he will go to Mana, along the Indo-China border, to spend time with ITBP personnel there.

This time, the Prime Minister will also be accompanied by national security adviser Ajit Doval during the trip to Mana, which is the last village in Indian territory, located at an altitude of 10,000 feet. Mr Modi is also expected to visit the holy temple of Badrinath, which is located in the same region.

Earlier, Mr Modi had urged the public to send Diwali greetings to security forces, saying such messages will act as a morale-booster for them. A social media campaign with tagline #Sandesh2Soldiers, through which people can send their Diwali greetings and messages to soldiers guarding the nation’s frontiers, is already trending.

The public is sending messages under the #Sandesh2Soldiers campaign on the Narendra Modi App, MyGov. In and through All India Radio. So far, over 10 lakh messages — 7 lakh on Facebook, Twitter and MyGov and about 3 lakh on the Narendra Modi App — have been sent, the PMO said.

Important personalities, including chief ministers, Union ministers, film stars, cricketers and other sportspersons have already sent their messages. These include Salman Khan, Aamir Khan, Akshay Kumar, Anupam Kher, Virat Kohli, Virendra Sehwag, Harbhajan Singh, Yuvraj Singh and Sakshi Malik.

The Prime Minister’s initiative comes in the wake of surgical strikes carried out by the Indian Army on terror launch pads across the Line of Control in PoK and the increased tension along the Indo-Pak border.