In the historic 100th episode of ‘’Mann Ki Baat’’, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday said the monthly radio programme has become a unique festival of goodness and positivity of the countrymen and a medium for him to connect with the masses.

‘’This (Mann Ki Baat) is 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. Every episode was special in itself,’’ the PM said in his nearly 40-minute address heard by millions across the country and abroad.

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In view of the significance of the occasion, Union Ministers and BJP Chief Ministers also shared platforms with common people to listen to the PM’s address.

PM Modi recalled that when he was the Chief Minister of Gujarat, it was natural for him to meet and interact with the common people there. But after he became the Prime Minister and came to Delhi in 2014, he found that life in the national capital was very different. The nature of the work was different, the responsibility was different.

‘’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 everything for me… 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 said.

The PM said: ‘’Mann Ki Baat’’ has provided him a platform through which he never felt away from the people. ‘’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. For me, ‘Mann Ki Baat’ is like a Thaal of Prasad at the feet of God in the form of Janata-Janardan, the people. ‘Mann Ki Baat’ has become a spiritual journey of my being,’’ he added.

The PM said the weekly programme has been a forum for him like worshipping the qualities in others. He said he had a guide, Laxmanrao ji Inamdar who always used to say that people 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,’’ Modi added. He noted that many mass movements have come into being and gained momentum through “Mann Ki Baat.”

The PM pointed out that tourism today was growing very fast in the country. ‘’Be it our natural resources, be it rivers, mountains, ponds or our pilgrimage sites, it is very important to keep them clean. This will help the tourism industry a lot,’’ he said.

Along with cleanliness in tourism, he said the Incredible India movement was discussed often. Through this movement, for the first time, people came to know about such places, which were just in their neighbourhood. He said that before going abroad for tourism, Indians must visit at least 15 tourist destinations of their own country and these destinations should not be from the state where they resided but from any other state outside their own state.

‘’Similarly, we have continuously talked about serious topics like clean Siachen, single use plastic and e-waste. Today, this effort of ‘Mann Ki Baat’ is very important in solving environmental issues about which the whole world is concerned,’’ he added.