Prahlad Modi, the younger brother of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, on Monday asked his community members to prefix “Modi” to their names.
“All I hear after coming here is that Narendra Modi is the pride of India and of his community. But why we, the members of Teli Samaj (oil-makers' community) are not ready to prefix Modi to our names,” Prahlad said at an all-India meet of young men and women of the ‘Sahu’ community.
Leaders of his community, for their selfish motives, use names of sub-castes such as Sahu, Chauhan, Parmar, Rathod and Jaiswal, he said.
Goddess Karma Devi was a Teli and “we are her children and we are Teli and Modis,” he added.
“We should resolve today that henceforth our name would begin with Modi,” Prahlad said, adding “if we start with prefix Modi, I believe that our community's population will add up to 14 crore” (across India).
He also said the community was a divided lot due to groupism and because of the political parties which fooled them. He called for unity of the community.
The Patidar and Rajput communities too have sub-castes, but their identity as Patidar and Rajput is intact, Prahlad said.
(At The Quint, we are answerable only to our audience. Play an active role in shaping our journalism by becoming a member. Because the truth is worth it.)