Union Home Minister Amit Shah hailed ‘Mann Ki Baat’, whose 100th episode is scheduled to be broadcast on April 30, and said that it is Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s “unprecedented experiment” to empower the foundations of India’s democracy.

The Prime Minister had started the monthly radio programme after taking over office in 2014. Addressing the concluding session of the National Conclave on ‘Mann Ki Baat’, the Home Minister said, “Mann Ki Baat is an unprecedented experiment carried out by Prime Minister Narendra Modi that empowered the foundations of India’s democracy.”

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“It is a very important event in which the leader appreciates the achievements of the people who are contributing to India’s national growth in their own way,” Shah said.

He expressed his satisfaction over the Prime Minister’s choice to use ‘Akashvani’ as a medium to reach out to the people through his monthly radio programme, and said that it is the “voice of the nation’s soul”.

“I am glad that Modi ji chose ‘Akashvani’ to convey his message. Since my childhood, I have been an admirer of ‘Akashvani’. I believe that it is the voice of the nation’s soul. I heard about India’s victory in Bangladesh in ‘Akshvani’ and also the defeat of a tyrant Indira Gandhi after an emergency in ‘Akashvani’. I was a regular listener of Jaymala a program that entertained the armed force jawans by playing songs at their request. People forgot this medium but Modiji revived it and popularized it among the young generation,” the Home Minister further said.

He also said that the foundation of democracy becomes strong only through dialogue between the people and the leader. Mann Ki Baat played that role and strengthened India’s foundation.

“It is astonishing that a political leader conversed with people in 99 episodes but did not evoke a single political issue,” Home Minister Shah added.

The minister also said that the Prime Minister platformed the nation’s creative power, innovative power and moral power in this programme.

“The nation that cannot organize and appreciates these three forces cannot be a successful democracy. Modi ji executed this mantra in all the 99 episodes,” he said.

He added that Modiji unravelled many dimensions of India’s democracy in the last 9 years. But one of his biggest contributions is, he liberated India’s politics from the clutches of casteism, mysticism and appeasement.

“As long as our thought is polluted by these three elements our opinions can never be free. He freed politics from them and made it performance-based. One who performs and serves better can remain in politics. He gave a new life and energy to our democracy,” he said.

Shah also said that as a perfect communicator, the prime minister showed how to speak with his conduct, thoughts and conversations without delivering any speech in Mann Ki Baat.

The minister also used the Hindi proverb “Gagar mei sagar Bharna” to express how the Prime Minister included a wide range of subjects in a short event and that too in a myriad of languages.

“Mann Ki Baat has always been pan-Indian in nature covering a vast expanse of India from Ladakh to Lakshwadeep and from the northeast to Punjab. It also covered a myriad of subjects from farmers to science from self-help groups to start-ups from cooperation to space,” he said.

Creating awareness about cleanliness, ecology protection, self-reliance, encouraging covid warriors and campaigning for clean India, fit india, beti bachao, beti padhao, water conservation, and vocal for local he gave all of them a new flight with Mann Ki Baat.

“Prime Minister Narendra Modi is a PERFECT communicator he said that here P stands for campaigning for Peace, E for Empowerment, R stands for reflective, F stands for festive, E for economic development, C for caring and T for thoughtful,” he added.

“Modiji explained the meaning of festivals and their relation with our ecology sending across a message of Ek Bharat Shrestha Bharat,” he said.

He further added, “We had forgotten Khadi. But Modiji said that it is not a fabric but a thought process. Modiji after Mahatma Gandhi was the first person to promote such vigour.”

Shah also said that after the prime minister’s appeal in ‘Mann Ki Baat’ India increased its toy production cutting down imports by 70 per cent and increasing export from Rs 202 million to Rs 326 million.

“Similarly export of musical instruments increased by 8 per cent due to these encouraging words in ‘Mann Ki Baat’. The Prime Minister popularized traditional games like Kabaddi and Khokho which teach young generations to accept defeat as well as to stay motivated,” Amit Shah added.