The ghat on the banks of river Ganga in Varanasi
Narendra Modi, member of Parliament from Varanasi, took over as Prime Minister in late May, giving India's oldest city the status of a VIP constituency. A 100 days later, the lyrical and laid-back city is in no rush to assess its new MP's performance, though it says it has high expectations from him.
As the strains of the morning aarti fills the air, local photographers, priests and flower vendors are busy at work on the ghats or banks of the river Ganga. The morning newspapers are filled with details of PM Modi's trip to Japan where he signed the Kyoto-Varanasi partnership, a crucial step in his plan to rejuvenate cities, including his own constituency.
"A 100 days is too short a time to judge someone's work. We gave the previous government 10 years, I think we should at least give Mr. Modi at least two before sitting in judgment," Laxman Prasad Manjhi, a boat owner. But he also says, "We want to see the Ganga clean and we want Mr Modi to do something for the cleanliness of the ghats. So far we haven't seen much happening."
Cleaning the Ganga, the city's big demand, could now be on fast track with the Supreme Court today asking the Centre for a stage-wise plan in three weeks. It also wants a ring road, flyovers to tackle perennially chaotic traffic and riddance from its electricity woes, which has to be tackled by the state government, but Varanasi hopes being the PM's constituency will fetch special benefits.
Giri Chand, a trinket vendor at Dashashwamedh Ghats, says he has still not made up his mind on how he will score the Modi government on its first 100 days. "Now he has an office here in the city. I've seen people go there with their problems. Let's see what happens," he says.
Anil Kumar Gupta, a photographer, sums up the city's belief that it voted well in the national elections this year. "We have to give him some time to leave his mark, make a difference," he says.