Questioning those “big families” who go abroad to organise wedding ceremonies, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday urged the people to hold such functions on Indian soil.
“The wedding season as well has commenced now. Some trade organizations estimate that there could be a business of around Rs 5 lakh crore during this wedding season. While shopping for weddings, all of you should give importance to products made in India only,” Modi said during the 107th episode of his monthly ‘Mann Ki Baat’ broadcast over All India Radio.
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“And yes, since the topic of marriage has come up, one thing has been troubling me off and on for a long time… and if I don’t open up my heart’s pain to my family members, who else do I do it with? Just ponder… these days a new milieu is being created by some families to go abroad and conduct weddings. Is this at all necessary?” he said.
“If we celebrate the festivities of marriages on Indian soil, amid the people of India, the country’s money will remain in the country. The people of the country will get an opportunity to render some service or the other at your wedding… even poor people will tell their children about that occasion. Can you extrapolate on this mission of ‘Vocal for Local’? Why don’t we hold such wedding ceremonies in our own country? It is possible that the kind of system you want may not be there today, but if we organize such events, systems will also develop,” Modi said.
He said this is a topic related to very big families. “I hope this pain of mine will definitely reach those big families,” the prime minister said.
In the broadcast, Modi also said that this is the second consecutive year when the trend of buying some goods through cash payments on the occasion of Deepawali is gradually on the decline.
“That means, people are making more and more digital payments now,” he said.