PM Modi addresses 100th episode of Mann Ki Baat

Prime Minister Narendra Modi spoke to the country on the historic 100th edition of ‘Mann Ki Baat’ on Sunday, saying that his radio show is the “Mann Ki Baat” of millions of Indians and an expression of their emotions.

The Prime Minister stated that he got thousands of letters and messages from the public and was “swept away by emotions” while reading them. He stated that the people of the country should be congratulated on the 100th edition of his monthly radio broadcast, which began on October 3, 2014.

“Today is the 100th episode of Mann Ki Baat. I have got thousands of letters, lakhs of messages. I have tried to go through more and more of them. I got emotional while reading your letters on many occasions, was swept away by emotions, and then held myself. You have congratulated me on the 100the episode of Mann Ki Baat, but all the listeners, our countrymen deserve to be congratulated. Mann Ki Baat is the ‘Mann Ki Baat of millions of Indians and the expression of their emotions,” PM Modi said.

“The Mann Ki Baat show is the personification of our citizens; here we celebrate positivity, and people’s participation,” PM Modi said, while adding that the show is a way of celebrating others’ achievements, an occasion to learn from others.

“Friends, the 3rd of October, 2014 was the festival of Vijaya Dashami and all of us together started the journey of ‘Mann Ki Baat’ on the day of Vijaya Dashami. Vijaya Dashami is the festival of victory of good over evil. ‘Mann Ki Baat’ has also become a unique festival of goodness and positivity of the countrymen. A festival that comes every month, keenly awaited by all of us. We celebrate positivity in this. We also celebrate people’s participation in this. Sometimes it is hard to believe that so many months, so many years have passed since ‘Mann Ki Baat’ commenced,” PM Modi said.

PM Modi said, “Friends, for me, ‘Mann Ki Baat’ has been like worshipping the qualities in others. I had a guide – Shri Laxmanrao ji Inamdar. We used to address him as Vakeel Saheb. He always used to say that we should worship the qualities of others. No matter who is face to face with you, be it your compatriot, be it your opponent, we should try to know about their good qualities and learn from them. This trait of his has always inspired me. ‘Mann Ki Baat’ has become a great medium to learn from the qualities of others.”

“In the initial days, something felt different, there was an emptiness. Fifty years ago, I did not leave my home just to find one day it would be difficult to contact the people of my own country. The very countrymen who are my everything, I could not live separated from them. ‘Mann Ki Baat’ gave me a solution to this challenge, a way to connect with the common man. The post and protocol remained limited to the system and public sentiment, along with crores of people, became an inseparable part of my inner world. Every month I read thousands of messages from the people of the country, every month I get to view one or the other wonderful manifestation of the countrymen. I see and feel the extremities of the penance and sacrifice of the countrymen. I just don’t feel that I am even a little far from you,” he further said.

PM Modi on Har Ghar Tiranga Campaign

“Friends, there has been another specialty of ‘Mann Ki Baat’. Through ‘Mann Ki Baat’, many mass movements have come into being and gained momentum. For example, the very mission to re-establish our toys and our toy industry started with ‘Mann Ki Baat’. The beginning of raising awareness about Indian breed dogs, our native dogs, was also started with ‘Mann Ki Baat’ only. We had started another campaign that we will not bargain with the poor small scale shopkeepers, we will not haggle with them. Even when the ‘Har Ghar Tiranga’ campaign started, ‘Mann Ki Baat’ played a big role in connecting the countrymen with this resolve. Every such example has become an agent of change in the society.”

PM recalls ‘Selfie With Daughter’ campaign

“When I came across Sunil ji’s ‘Selfie With Daughter’ campaign, I felt very happy. I also learned from him and included it in ‘Mann Ki Baat’. In no time ‘Selfie With Daughter’ turned into a Global Campaign. And the issue in this was neither selfie, nor technology, importance was accorded to the daughter. The importance of a daughter in life also comes to the fore through this campaign. The result of many such efforts is that today the Gender Ratio has improved in Haryana,” PM Modi said.

During his presentation, the Prime Minister discussed women’s empowerment and how his monthly radio show became a forum to bring to the forefront woman power, which led to different campaigns for social reasons.

The Prime Minister mentioned several examples from around the country of people working to improve society as a whole, and he stated that his inclusion of women’s achievements in Mann Ki Baat episodes had received widespread acclaim.

“Be it our army or the sports world, whenever I have talked about the achievements of women, it has been praised a lot. Like we discussed about the women of Deur village of Chhattisgarh. These women, through self-help groups, run campaigns to clean village squares, roads and temples. Similarly, the country also took a lot of inspiration from the tribal women of Tamil Nadu, who exported thousands of Eco-Friendly Terracotta Cups. In Tamil Nadu itself, 20 thousand women came together to revive the Nag river in Vellore. Many such campaigns have been led by our woman power and ‘Mann Ki Baat’ has served as a platform to bring their efforts to the fore,” PM Modi said.

Mann Ki Baat Achievers

“Friends, there are so many talented people in our country who have reached the pinnacle of success through their hard work. I remember, Venkat Murali Prasad ji of Visakhapatnam did an Atmanirbhar Bharat Chart Share. He had told us how he would make maximum use of Indian products only. When Pramod ji of Bettiah set up a small unit to make LED bulbs or Santosh ji of Garhmukteshwar started making mats, ‘Mann Ki Baat’ became the medium to bring their products in front of everyone. We have discussed many examples from Make in India to Space Start-ups in ‘Mann Ki Baat’,” PM Modi said.

He further added, “Friends, you may remember that a few episodes ago I had also mentioned about Manipur’s sister Vijayashanti Devi. Vijayashanti ji makes clothes from lotus fibers. This unique eco-friendly idea of her was discussed in ‘Mann Ki Baat’ and her work became more popular. Today Vijayashanti ji is with us on the phone.”

PM Modi’s radio monthly programme completed its 100th episode today which was aired at 11 am live across the country.

The programme, which started on October 3, 2014, has become a key pillar of the government’s citizen-outreach programme addressing multiple social groups such as women, youth, and farmers and has spurred community action.

Apart from 22 Indian languages and 29 dialects, Mann Ki Baat is broadcast in 11 foreign languages including French, Chinese, Indonesian, Tibetan, Burmese, Baluchi, Arabic, Pashtu, Persian, Dari and Swahili. Mann Ki Baat is being broadcast by more than 500 broadcast centres of All India Radio.