PM’s birthday celebrations: Bid to create Guinness record called off

mangaloretoday.com

New Delhi, Sept 18: A bid to create the Guinness World Record with the highest number of “selfies with daughters” on Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s birthday, organised by the Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha (BJYM) in Ahmedabad Thursday, ended on an ugly note when the organisers failed to manage the crowd and had to call off the event midway after the stage collapsed. Incidentally, PM Modi’s elder brother Somabhai was the chief guest at the event.

 

In the rush, seven girls were separated from their parents. They were later united with them by the organisers, who arranged to send them to their respective homes.

Anticipating lack of adequate arrangements, the organisers abruptly announced its conclusion after about 10,000-odd selfies were clicked. This enraged the parents, who had reached the venue — Chandra Prasad Desai Hall at Bapunagar — with their daughters in large numbers. The organisers claimed the number of parents who turned up was one lakh, against the registered participants of 27,000.

While no police complaint was registered, the participants, who were asked to return without a selfie, tried to vandalise the event. Though two witnesses for the Guinness World Records were present at the event, the bid was aborted midway.

“We realised that nearly 20,000 participants had already reached the venue at 11 am, so we started it before time. As we completed 10,000 selfies, we saw more people coming. Looking at the video footage and pictures, it could be gauged that nearly 1 lakh participants turned up,” said Prakash Gurjar, state vice-president of BJYM.

The organisers had arranged for 75 selfie booths that could reportedly account for 500 selfies in one minute.

Meanwhile, Bapunagar police inspector R K Ladva said no complaint had been registered as yet. “So far, no one has approached the police with any complaint about the event.”