Chennai: “Mann ki Baat is like a mirror to the people of the country that shows not just our unity but our other strengths as well. It tells us that every citizen of the country is committed towards the progress of our country,” said Prime Minister Narendra Modi today during his monthly radio programme ‘Mann ki Baat.’ This is his first programme since he won his second term as Prime Minister.
Winning and losing is part of the vibrancy of Indian democracy, stressed Modi. He said that he remains committed to taking forward the development work his government had undertaken during the previous tenure.
He further praised the people saying that he had received countless letters over the past years but nobody had asked anything for themselves but only for the benefit of the country in those letters. He further added that the letters gave him strength and that he missed it the past four months.
Elections are the biggest highlight of democracy and it brings people together to give direction to the nation. He said it was a massive achievement to conduct elections in a country like India as more than 61 crore people voted in the recent election. “This is a huge number, more than the population of many countries including the United States. This shows the enormity and diversity of our country,” he said.
Speaking about his Kedarnath visit after the election, he said he undertook the journey to meet his inner self, but some people had politicized the trip.
He then went on to speak about the prevailing water crisis being faced in several parts of the country and said one formula can not be applied to the entire country but the main objective of everyone should be to save water. Highlighting the need for water conservation, he said every year, only 8 per cent of monsoon rain is recycled and it is time to treat this urgently. He further said the Ministry of Water Resources was working relentlessly to address the issue.
Saying water was a gift from Gods, Modi made three requests:
* To turn water conservation into a mass movement in order to save each and every drop of water.
* To look into the traditional means of water conservation that have been prevalent in our country for years.
* To share details of everyone and every organisation working towards water conservation so that their database can be created.