My dear countrymen, Saadar Namaskar.
When on the one hand, a sense of festivity pervades the land, and on the other,
news of violence comes in, from one part of the country, it is only natural to feel
concerned. Ours is the country of Buddha and Gandhi, it is the land of Sardar
Patel who gave up his all for the unity of the nation. For centuries, our
forefathers have imbibed community values, nonviolence, mutual respect – these
are inherent to us. We have been hearing and saying Ahimsa Parmo Dharmah from
our childhood. In my address from the ramparts of the Red Fort, I had said that
violence in the name of faith will not be tolerated, whether it is communal
belief systems, whether it is subscribing to political ideologies, whether it
is allegiance to a person or customs and traditions. No one has the right to
take the law into one’s own hands in the name of one’s beliefs. In the Constitution
given to us by Dr. Baba Saheb Ambedkar there is every provision for ensuring
justice for each and every person. I want to assure my countrymen that people
who take the law into their own handsand are on the path of violent suppression
– whether it is a person or a group –neither this country nor any government
will tolerate it. Each and every person will have to abide by the law; the law
will fix accountability and the guilty will unquestionably be punished.
My
dear countrymen, our country is a land of diversities – these diversities are
not limited to our cuisine, life style and attire. We observe diversity in every walk of life.
Even our festivals are replete with diversity. Ours is arich cultural heritage,
spanning thousands of years – when we look at our cultural traditions, social
customs, historical events, there would hardly be a day left in the year which
is not connected with a festival. You would have noticed, that all our
festivals follow the almanac of nature. There is a direct connect with nature.
Many of our festivals are linked straightaway with farmers and fishermen.
Speaking about festivals today, I
would first like to wish you all michhamidukkadam. The Jain community
celebrated the Samvatsari Parva yesterday. In the month of Bhadra, Paryushan Parva
is celebrated by the Jain Community. The last day of Paryushan Parva is
observed as Samvatsari. This is indeed a remarkable tradition. The festival of
Samvatsari is symbolic of forgiveness, non-violence and brotherhood. It is also
known as the Kshamavani Parva, and on this day, people traditionally greet each
other with, ‘michhamidukkadam.’ We have been hearing in our shaastras, our holy
texts, “KshamaVeerasya Bhushanam”, that is, forgiveness is the adornment of the
brave. The one who forgives is valiant. And Mahatma Gandhi always said, that forgiveness
is the quality of great men.
Shakespeare
in his play, “The Merchant of Venice”, while explaining the importance of
forgiveness, has written, “Mercy is twice blest, it blesseth him that gives and
him that takes,” meaning, the forgiver and the forgiven both stand to receive
divine blessing.
My
dear countrymen, Ganesh Chaturthi is being celebrated with great fervor
all across the country. When we speak of Ganesh Chaturthi, it is but natural to
talk about Sarvajanik Ganeshotsav, that is, community celebrations of
the Ganesh Festival. This tradition was established by Bal Gangadhar Tilak 125
years ago, and it was 125 years ago that Sarvajanik Ganeshotsav became a
symbol of India’s struggle for freedom. And after Independence, this festival
has become a vehicle of raising social and educational awareness. Ganesh
Chaturthi is a ten-day festival. This Mahaparva, mega-festival stands for
unity, equality, integrity and honesty. My heartiest greetings to all of you on
the occasion of Ganeshotsav.
The
festival of Onam is being celebrated in Kerela. Of the numerous colourful
festivals of India, Onam is a prime festival of Kerela. This festival is known
for its social and cultural significance. This festival showcases the rich
cultural heritage of Kerala. It gives the message of love and harmony - awakens new hopes and aspirations, and gives
new confidence to the people. Our festivals are now becoming great attractions
for tourism. And I would like to mention to my countrymen, that festivals like Navaratri
in Gujarat, or Durga Utsav in Bengal are tremendous tourist
attractions. Other festivals of our country too, provide an opportunity to
attract foreign visitors. We should think about what more can be done in this
direction.
In this series of festivals, Eid-ul-Zuha
will be celebrated in a few days from now. Heartiest felicitations and best
wishes to all countrymen on the occasion of Eid-ul-Zuha. Festivals are
of course symbols of faith and belief; in the New India, we should transform
them into symbols of cleanliness as well. In individual households, festivals
and cleanliness are linked together. In fact, preparations for festivals always
begin with cleaning. This is nothing new for us, but it is important to convert
it into a social character. Public
cleanliness must be insisted upon not just in our homes but in our villages,
towns, cities, states and in our entire country – Cleanliness has to be inextricably
linked to our festivals.
My dear
countrymen, definitions of being modern are perpetually changing. These days, a new measure to gauge a new dimension, a new
parameter, has come in to being. It determines what your upbringing has been,
how modern you are, how modern your thinking is. And that measure is your level
of environment consciousness. Are your activities ecofriendly, environment
friendly or otherwise? It is considered to be unacceptable in society today, of
you are not environment friendly. And as a result of this I find that, the
ecofriendly Ganpati, in this Ganesh Festival has turned into a
huge campaign. If you go on YouTube, you will see that children in every home
are making earthen Ganesh idols and are colouring them. Some are using
vegetable colours, while some are pasting bits and pieces of paper. All sorts
of experiments are being carried out in every family. This is probably the
first of its kind, the most widespread experiment in environment consciousness.
Media houses too, are making a great effort in training people, inspiring them
and guiding them towards ecofriendly Ganesh idols. What a massive
transformation this has been; a pleasant one at that. And as I mentioned, our
country is blessed with millions and millions of the brightest of brains. And
it is nice to see all sorts of new innovations. Someone told me about a
gentleman who is an engineer and who has collected and combined special
varieties of clay, to give training in making Ganesh idols. The Ganesh Visarjan
or immersion is done in a small bucket of water, where the idol dissolves
within no time. And he didn’t stop there. A tulsi, Holy Basil, sapling
was sowed in it. The campaign for Cleanliness which was initiated three years
ago will be marking its third anniversary on the 2nd of October. And
the positive results are now being seen. Toilets have increased from 39% to
almost 67% of the population? More than two lakh thirty thousand villages have
declared themselves open defecation free.
Gujarat
saw devastating floods recently. Many
people lost their lives. When the waters receded, there was so much filth
everywhere. That is when, in Dhanera in the Banaskantha District of Gujarat,
volunteers of Jamiat-Ulema-e-Hind cleaned twenty-two affected temples
and two mosques in a phased manner. They came together and toiled collectively.
The volunteers of Jamiat-Ulema-e-Hind set a fine, inspiring example of
unity for cleanliness. If this committed effort towards cleanliness becomes
inherent to us, we will certainly take our nation to greater heights.
My
dear countrymen, I call upon you to begin a campaign, Swachchata Hi Sewa,
Cleanliness is Service, at least fifteen-twenty days prior to Gandhi Jayanti on
2nd October – on the lines of the age-old belief, Jal Seva Yahi Prabhu
Seva, Service to Water is Service to God. Let’s create an environment of
cleanliness in the entire country. Whenever and wherever possible, let’s look
for the opportunity. But we must all come together. We could look at this as
preparations for Diwali, preparations for Navaratri, preparations
for Durga Puja. Do Shramdan, Donate through labor. Come together on Sundaysand Holidays. Go to
settlements in your neighborhood, go to nearby villages, but do this in the
form of a movement. I urge all NGOs, schools, colleges, social, cultural and
political leaders, people in the government, collectors and sarpanches,
to begin creating an environment of cleanliness at least fifteen days ahead of
Gandhi Jayanti on the 2nd of October so that it turns out to be the
2nd October of Gandhi’s dreams. The Ministry of Drinking Water and
Sanitation has created a section on MyGov.in where after constructing a toilet
you can register your name and the name of the beneficiary family, who you
helped. My friends from the social media can run a few creative campaigns and
thus become a source of inspiration in the virtual world, to see results in the
real world. The Ministry of Drinking Water and Sanitation has organized, the Swachch
Sankalp se Swachcha Siddhi Pratiyogita, from the resolve of Cleanliness to
attaining Cleanliness Competition comprising an essay competition, a short film
making competition and a painting competition. You can write essays in various
languages and there is no age limit. You can make a short film even with your
mobile phone. You can film a two-three-minute movie that inspires cleanliness.
It can be in any language; it could be silent too. The best three participants
– three at the district level, three at the state level will be given prizes. I
invite one and all – Come, join the Cleanliness Campaign in this manner as
well.
I
would like to reiterate, let’s resolve to celebrate, 2nd October Gandhi Jayanti
this year as Swachch Do Aktoobar, Clean 2nd October. And to
this end beginning 15th September let us take the mantra, the
message, Swachchata Hi Seva, Cleanliness is Service to each and
every home. Take one or another step towards cleanliness. Make your effort to
be a part of it. You will see how the Gandhi Jayanti of this 2nd
October shines. You can imagine the inner bliss of paying homage to our revered
Bapu, with fifteen days of this cleanliness campaign, Swachchata Hi Seva, when
we celebrate Gandhi Jayanti on the 2nd of October.
My
dear countrymen, I want to specially express my indebtedness to you. I want to
thank you from the core of my heart, not because you have been connected with
Mann Ki Baat, for such a long time – I want to express my gratitude and
indebtedness as millions of people from across the country come together with
Mann ki Baat. The number of listeners are in crores out of which lakhs of
people write letters to me, send messages, and get their messages recorded on
phone, which is a huge treasure for me. This has become a great opportunity for
me to understand the hearts and minds of one and all. Much as you wait for Mann
ki Baat, I await your messages with greater eagerness. I always look forward
with anticipation, because I find so much to learn from all that you share. It
is an opportunity to test my endeavors on this touchstone. Even the smallest of
your suggestions help me in thinking anew on a wide variety of subjects. I
therefore express my heartfelt gratitude for your contributions and also my
indebtedness to you. My endeavor always is to see for myself, hear, read and
understand your thoughts. All sorts of things come to me. Now take this phone
call for example. You will be able to correlate with it. You too would feel
that, you would’ve committed the same mistake. Sometimes certain things become
a part of our habits that we don’t even realize that we are doing something
wrong.
“Pradhan
Mantri ji, I am Aparna from Pune. I want to tell you about a friend of mine.
She always tries to help others, but one habit of her bothers me. I went for
shopping with her at a mall. She coolly spent two thousand rupees on a sari,
and four hundred and fifty rupees on a pizza. Whereas, she haggled for a long
time, over merely five rupees, with the auto driver, who took us to the mall.
On the way back, we stopped to buy vegetables, and again she haggled with the
vendors to save 4-5 rupees. I feel very bad. We spend extravagantly in high
places, without a single thought, but when it comes to our hardworking
brethren, we quarrel with them over small amounts. We don’t trust them. Please
speak about this on Mann ki Baat.”
Now
after listening to this phone call, I am certain that you would have been
shocked and awakened and would probably have resolved not to repeat such a
mistake. Don’t you feel that whenever a vendor comes to your door to sell something,
on his rounds, when we come into contact with small shopkeepers, vegetable
sellers, auto rickshaw drivers - in fact any person who earns through sheer
hard work – we start bargaining with him, haggling with him: “No not so much,
make it two rupees less, five rupees less!” And it is us, the same people, who
go to dine at a fine restaurant, we don’t even bother to check the bill, we
just go ahead and pay the money, without thinking twice. Not just this, when we
go to a showroom to buy a saree, we don’t bargain, but when it comes to someone
poor, we just cannot resist bargaining. Have you ever wondered what a poor man
goes through? It is not a matter of two or five rupees, it hurts him deeply,
when he feels that you are questioning his honesty. Two or five rupees make no
difference to your life, but have you thought how much heartache this petty
habit of yours can cause him. Madam I am grateful to you for calling me with
this touching message. I am certain that my countrymen, if they are in the
habit of behaving in this way with the poor will now stop doing so.
My dear young friends, the country
celebrates National Sports Day on the 29th of August. This is the
birth anniversary of the great hockey player, hockey wizard, Major Dhyan Chand
ji. His contribution to hockey was unparalleled. I am reminding you of this
because I want the younger generation of our country to take part in sports.
Sports should become a part of our lives. If we are a young nation, our youth
should get manifested in the field sports as well. Sports means, physical
fitness, mental alertness and personality enhancement. What else does one need?
Sports, in a way, is a recipe that brings people together. The young generation
of our country should come forward in the world of sports – and in today’s
computer era I would like to alert you to the fact that the playing field is
far more important than the play station. Play FIFA on the computer, but
sometimes show your skills with the football out in the field. You must be
playing cricket on the computer but the pleasure of actually playing cricket in
an open field under the sky is something else. There was a time when the
children in the family went out to play, the mother would first ask, “When will
you come back home?” Now the times are such that children, when they come home,
they either start watching cartoons in a corner, or are glued to mobile games.
And the mother has to shout, “When will you go out?” How times have changed!
There was a time when the mother would demand to know when her son would be
back. And today, she demands to know when he will go out.
Young friends, the Sports Ministry is
launching a Sports Talent Search Portal to search for sporting talent and to
groom them. Any talented child who has an achievement in sports, can upload his
biodata or video on this portal. The Ministry of Sports will impart training to
selected emerging players. The Ministry is launching the portal tomorrow. The
good news for our young friends is that the FIFA under 17 World Cup is being
organized in India, from the 6th to the 28th of
October. Twenty-four teams from all over
the world will be making India their home.
Come, let’s welcome the young visitors
from all across the world with the festival of Sports, let’s enjoy the sport,
and create a conducive sporting atmosphere in the country. I speak about sports
today, and just last week, a heartwarming incident took place, which I would
like to share with my countrymen. I had
the opportunity to meet some young daughters, some of who, were born in the
Himalayas, who had absolutely no connection with the sea. Six of these young
daughters are in the Navy. Their grit and zeal, is inspiring for all of us.
These six young women will embark on a voyage across the seas, in a small boat,
INS Tarini. The expedition has been named, Navika Sagar Parikrama. They will
circumnavigate the globe and return home, after many months. Sometimes they
will spend 40 days on the seas in one go; at times, thirty. Our six daughters
riding the waves of the high seas, with courage, is the first instance of its
kind in the world. Each and every Indian would be proud of these daughters. I
salute their valour and I have asked them to share their experiences with the
entire country. I too am making a separate arrangement for their experiences on
the NarendraModiApp to ensure that you can read it. For this is a tale of
heroism, a tale of personal experiences, and I would be happy to bring you the
stories of these daughters. My best wishes and blessings to these daughters.
My dear countrymen, we celebrate 5th
September as Teacher’s Day. It is the birthday of our former President, Dr.
Radhakrishnan ji. He was the President, but all through his life, he saw
himself as a teacher. He preferred to live a teacher’s life. He was committed
to being a teacher. He was a scholar, a diplomat, the President of India and
yet, quintessentially a teacher. I salute him.
The great scientist Albert Einstein
said, “It is the supreme art of the teacher to awaken joy in creative
expression and knowledge.” The most important quality of a teacher, is to
awaken in his students, a sense of creativity and the joy of learning. As we
celebrate Teacher’s Day this year can we come together and take a resolve? Can
we run a campaign in mission mode? Teach to Transform, Educate to Empower,
Learn to Lead. Can we move ahead with
this resolve? Get someone committed to a
five-year resolve. Show him the path of attainment, which he can achieve in
five years - so that he can experience the joy of success in life. Such an
atmosphere can be created by our schools, our colleges, our teachers, our
educational institutions. When we speak about transformation in our country, we
must think of our teachers as we do of our mothers. The teacher plays a vital
role in transformation. In the life of every teacher, there are incidents of
simple efforts that succeeded in bringing about a transformation in somebody’s
life. We will play a big role in the transformation of the nation, if we make a
collective effort. Come, let’s move forward with the mantra, Teach to
Transform.
“Pranam Pradhan Mantri ji, I am Dr.
Ananya Awasthi. I am a resident of Mumbai and work for the India Research
Centre of Harvard University. As a
researcher, I have been especially interested in Financial Inclusion. With
reference to the social schemes related to Financial Inclusion, my question to
you is: In the backdrop of the Jan Dhan Yojna launched in 2014, can you say
that, do the statistics show that today, three years later, India is
financially more secure and stronger, and whether this empowerment and benefits
have percolated down to our women, farmers and workers, in villages and small
towns. Thank you.”
My dear countrymen, the Pradhan Mantri
Jan DhanYojna, financial inclusion, had been a point of discussion amongst
Financial Pundits, not just in India, but all over the world. On the 28th
of August 2014, we had launched this campaign with a dream in our hearts.
Tomorrow on the 28th of August, the Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojna
will complete three years. Thirty crore new families have been linked to this
scheme, bank accounts have been opened. This number is larger than the
population of many countries of the world. And today I feel a great sense of
fulfilment, that within three years, the last man on the fringes of society has
become a part of the mainstream economy of the country. His ways have changed,
he has now started going to the bank. He has started saving his money. He feels
financially secure. When there is cash in the hand, or in the pocket or at
home, one is tempted to indulge in wasteful expenditure. There is now an air of
prudence. He is now beginning to understand that the money can be of use for
his children. The money can be used productively in the days to come. Not just
this, when a poor person sees a RuPay Card, in his pocket, he finds himself to
be equal to the privileged – that if they have a credit card in their pockets,
I too have a RuPay Card in mind. He feels a sense of dignity.
In the
Pradhan Mantri Jan DhanYojna, almost 65 thousand crore rupees have deposited in
banks by our underprivileged brethren. In a way, this is a saving for the poor,
this is his empowerment for the future. And those who opened their accounts
under the Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojna, have received the benefit of insurance
as well. Schemes like, Pradhan Mantri Jeewan Jyoti BimaYojna, Pradhan Mantri
Suraksha Bima Yojna, with a small premium of one rupee or thirty rupees, are
giving a new sense of confidence to the poor. For many families, in times of
adversity, or on the demise of the head of the family, through the one-rupee insurance,
they received two lakh rupees in a matter of days. Pradhan Mantri Mudra Yojna,
Start Up Yojna, Stand Up Yojna – for Dalits, Adivasis, women, educated youth,
youth who want to stand on their own feet - for millions and millions through
Pradhan Mantri Mudra Yojna, they have been able to get loans from banks without
any guarantee. They have been able to stand on their own feet and have
succeeded in giving employment to one or two other people as well. Banks have
conducted surveys about how the common man has benefitted from Jan Dhan Yojna,
from Insurance Schemes, from RuPay Card and Pradhan Mantri Mudra Yojna. I
recently met a few bankers, who shared inspiring stories from their survey.
There isn’t enough time today, but I would certainly like request the bankers
to upload these inspiring stories, on MyGov.in, so that people can read them
and be inspired by how a scheme can bring about transformation in the life of a
person, how it can bring a new energy, a new confidence – hundreds of examples
have come before me. I will try my best to bring these to you; and the media
can also take advantage of these inspiring stories. They too, can interview such people, and
inspire the young generation.
My dear countrymen, once again, I wish
you “michchamidukkadm.” Thank you very much.
****
AKT/NT