PM Modi says the journey of 'Mann Ki Baat' started on October 3, 2014. (File)
Prime Minister Narendra Modi addresses his 50th monthly radio broadcast 'Mann Ki Baat' at All India Radio today. He said the 'Mann Ki Baat' journey started on October 3, 2014, and today is the Golden Jubilee episode. The prime minister also narrated the story of how the idea for the programme came to him during a trip to Himachal Pradesh.
'Mann Ki Baat' has previously seen PM Modi flagging several key issues, including education of the girl child, tackling exam stress, curbing pollution and drug menace, in his previous addresses.
"When Mann ki Baat began, I decided that politics will not be a part of it. It'll neither have the praises of the government nor my name," PM Modi said today.
Here are the Highlights from Mann Ki Baat's 50th episode:
The government has made a very important decision -- that of opening the Kartarpur Corridor so that people of our nation can easily go to Kartarpur in Pakistan and visit the sacred place of Guru Nanak Dev, says PM Modi.
Today, the youth is very ambitious, they think big, the prime minister says. "It's good, dream big and achieve great success -- this is the New India. People say the young generation wants to do so many things at the same time. I say what's wrong in that? They are good at multitasking, so they do that."
Cleanliness, road safety, drug free India and selfie with daughter are some of the initiatives that the media campaigned for in a creative manner, PM Modi adds. "TV channels have made it the most watched radio programme."
"Modi will come and go, but this country will remain eternal, our culture will remain immortal": PM Modi on Mann Ki Baat.
"I thank the media for playing Mann Ki Baat on their channels on a regular basis. No political person is ever happy with the media, they think they don't get enough coverage or get negative coverage, however, the media has made the issues raised in programme their own," the prime minister adds.
"When
Mann Ki Baat began, I decided that politics will not be a part of it. It'll neither have the praises of the government nor my name. I got the inspiration and strength to stay true to my resolution from all of you," PM Modi says in his radio address.
"Mann Ki Baat is about people, not politics," he adds.
PM Modi, then a BJP worker, asked the man the reason behind his happiness. The man turned on a radio and then Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee was heard saying that it was the day India conducted its atomic test.
"I was surprised that in a secluded terrain of this forest, between the icy hills, someone doing his daily job listens to the radio which creates so much impact on his mind," the PM said.
"Since then, there was a point in my mind that radio is linked to the masses and has a lot of power," he adds.
"In 1998, I was working in Himachal Pradesh as a worker of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). It was May and I was going to travel to another location in the evening. It was a cold evening in the hills of Himachal, and I stopped for tea on a dhaba (small eatery) on the way. There was only one person managing the stall and selling tea," PM Modi begins his address for the 50th
Mann Ki Baat on radio.
PM Modi says the person on the stall took out a ladoo (a sweet) and asked him to have it first, before the tea. "I was surprised and asked him what is the occasion, did someone get married? He said no, don't you know?"
"Many people want to know how did the idea of a programme like 'Mann Ki Baat' come. Today, I want to share it," says PM Modi.