'Mann Ki Baat' has become a unique festival of goodness, positivity for people: PM

New Delhi: Celebrating the 100th episode of “Mann Ki Baat” with the country, and this time the world, on Sunday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi revealed that he had felt a certain “emptiness” after assuming the post of Prime Minister in 2014 as he could not interact or contact people so freely any longer due to the “rigours of security and time limits”, but that the Mann Ki Baat programme had given him “a solution to this challenge, a way to connect with the common man”.

Delivering his address as part of a long, historic journey that began eight and a half years ago in October 2014, on the last Sunday of every month, Mr Modi spoke to ordinary Indians from all corners of the country about their inspirational stories of struggle that have contributed to changing their lives for the better. He said he “saw and felt the extremities of the penance and sacrifice of countrymen” and for him, the “'Mann Ki Baat” is not a programme but a matter of faith, of worship, or “vrat” (fast).

Saying that for him, “Mann Ki Baat is like a ‘thaal of prasad’ (plate of offerings) at the feet of God in the form of Janata-Janardan, the people”, he said the “Mann Ki Baat has become a spiritual journey of my being”.

In a first, the 100th Mann Ki Baat was broadcast live at the UN headquarters in the early hours of Sunday morning, being aired in the chamber of the Trusteeship Council. It was also live-streamed at India’s diplomatic missions in several countries, including in Russia, China and Bangladesh, with the events attended by Indian community members and embassy officials.

In London, a live broadcast at the Indian high commission was attended by Union minister of state Jitendra Singh, now on a tour of the UK.

External affairs minister S. Jaishankar, who just ended a long nine-day official visit to four Caribbean and Latin American nations, also reached New Jersey in the United States on Sunday to hear the programme with members of the Indian diaspora there.

Answering questions from the head of UN agency Unesco, Ms Audrey Azoulay, on how India planned to bring education and culture to the global centre-stage, particularly when the country is chairing the G-20 grouping of the world’s largest economies, Mr Modi said that “the work that the country is doing in this direction today is really commendable, be it the National Education Policy or the option of studying in a regional language, or technology integration in education”.

The ordinary Indians referred to by Mr Modi in the programme included Sunil Jaglan from Haryana, who had boosted attention on the “gender ratio in Haryana” and welfare of the girl-child by starting a “Selfie with Daughter” campaign; Manzoor Ahmed of J&K, a small entrepreneur producing pencil-slates; and Vijayshanti Devi of Manipur, who produces and now exports lotus stem fibres. Mention was made of the “women of Deur village of Chhattisgarh, who through self-help groups, run campaigns to clean village squares, roads and temples”; and “the tribal women of Tamil Nadu, who exported thousands of eco-friendly terracotta cups”.

Mr Modi said: “After coming to Delhi in 2014, I found that life here was very different. The nature of the work is different, the responsibility is different, one is bound by circumstances, the rigours of security & time limits. 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.”

He added: “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 my 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. For me ‘Mann Ki Baat’ is not a programme, for me it is a matter of faith, of worship, or vrat. Like when people go to worship God, they bring along a thaal of prasad… ‘Mann Ki Baat’ has become a spiritual journey of my being.”

Mr Modi further said: “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’. 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 countrymen with this resolve. Every such example has become an agent of change in society.”