‘Democracy Is In Our Sanskaar’: In First ‘Mann Ki Baat’ Since Elections, PM Modi Says People Brought Him Back To Power

In his first ‘Mann Ki Baat’ public address since Lok Sabha Elections 2019, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday (30 June) said that democracy is the heritage of the country, reports The Hindu. The Mann Ki Baat programme was suspended in February in the run-up to the general election.

The prime minister said that he had not returned to office, but “the people had brought him back”.

“When it [the February 24 address] was about to end, I had stated that we would meet once again after three or four months, people assigned a political hue to it, saying ‘Hey, Modiji is so full of confidence, he is certain!’ The confidence was not Modi’s. This trust was the trust of your foundation... Actually speaking, I have not returned, you brought me back, you positioned me here and gave me the opportunity to speak once again,” he said.

PM Modi also recalled his Kedarnath trip amidst the elections and said he was asked a flurry of questions over the trip. He said that the trip was to get in touch with his inner self. “

I shall not reveal other things today, but I certainly want to tell you that perhaps in that solitary cave, I got an opportunity to fill up the vacuum caused due to the long pause that Mann Ki Baat had to go through. The rest is your inquisitiveness… I think, someday, I’ll talk about that, too,” he said.

Recalling the atrocities during the time of National Emergency imposed by Indira Gandhi government, PM Modi said that people had voted to save democracy in the 1977 election. He added that the value of democracy for Indians went beyond laws and constitution.

“India can proudly proclaim that, for us, beyond laws and rules, democracy is embedded in our sanskaar; democracy is our culture. Democracy is our heritage,” he said.

Touching on different current issues, PM Modi exhorted people to make water conservation a mass movement “just like the cleanliness drive has been given the shape of a mass movement”.