No boring speeches during fasts, says Modi's office

Embarrassed by incidents such as a Muslim cleric offering Narendra Modi a skull cap and his refusal to accept it, the Gujarat chief minister's office has now issued a list of do's and don'ts for the organisers.

A note, containing instructions for the organisers at the district level, has been circulated to Bharatiya Janata Party workers as well as the council of ministers, a source in the chief minister's office said.

Among other things, it says that identities and credentials of anyone desiring to meet Modi on the stage must be checked. Permission will have to be taken for gifting him anything on the stage. The ministers have been told not to repeat the speeches.

During Modi's three-day Sadbhavna fast in Ahmedabad, a Muslim cleric requested him to wear a skull cap, which the chief minister refused.

Then again, in Navsari district, during the second leg of Sadbhavna mission, another Muslim cleric tried to put a scarf around Modi's shoulder, but Modi declined to accept it.

The incidents, against Modi's assertion that the objective of the mission was to promote communal harmony, came as embarrassments to the BJP government.