Mann ki Baat: Modi keeps mum on the other Modi

Oppostion says will target PM for not addressing Lalit Modi controversy

› THE SEX RATIO IN HARYANA IS PARTICULARLY SCARY. BUT A SARPANCH THERE HAS TAKEN THE ‘BETI BACHAO YOJANA’ TO A NEW LEVEL, AND THIS HAS INSPIRED ME TOO.

PM NARENDRA MODI, on Mann ki Baat

NEW DELHI: Prime Minister Narendra Modi spoke his mind on a raft of issues during his monthly radio programme on Sunday, launching a selfie campaign to protect the girl child and lauding the successes of World Yoga Day, but the Opposition panned his silence on the Lalit Modi controversy.

The Congress and other rival groups stepped up their attack on the government and asked the PM to speak up following reports this month that foreign minister Sushma Swaraj and Rajasthan chief minister Vasundhara Raje helped expelled IPL commissioner Lalit Modi at a time he was facing heat from Indian investigating agencies over corruption charges.

“This gover nment visits America, Australia, Germany, China... The government is running, but the people are crawling,” senior Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad told reporters in Delhi, taking a dig at Narendra Modi’s frequent foreign tours. “It is in the interest of the Prime Minister to take immediate action against those involved in corruption. Otherwise, nationally and internationally, it is going to haunt him wherever he goes.”

Finance minister Arun Jaitley, who was in Mathura, said the Congress had blown the issue out of proportion and false allegations were being levelled against female leaders of his party. The Prime Minister made no reference to the controversy in his Mann ki Baat show, instead voicing concern over the depleting sex ratio in 100 districts of the country as he pitched for a mass movement to save the girl child.

“The sex ratio in Haryana is particularly scary. But a sarpanch there has taken the ‘Beti Bachao Yojana’ to a new level, and this has inspired me too,” he said. “I urge all of you to click a selfie with your daughter and post it. Also share a tagline that will encourage ‘Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao’... I will retweet the selfies with the best taglines.”

He also asked citizens to ensure that in the run-up to the Raksha Bandhan festival in August, women get the benefits of social security schemes launched by the government.

“Please enrol the sisters who work for you, at your homes and in your fields, for the R12 and R330 social security programmes,” he said. Modi, who pushed the United Nations to dedicate a day to yoga, said he was overwhelmed by the international response to the event.

“The rays of the sun were welcomed by yoga all over the world on Yoga Day on June 21. On June 21, when I saw glimpses of UN secretary general Ban Ki-moon doing yoga at the UN headquarters, I felt very happy. I am also happy that the armed forces joined in the yoga day celebrations,” the PM said.

This was the sixth edition of Mann ki Baat, through which the PM aims to get his message across to two-thirds of the country’s 1.2 billion people who lis- ten regularly to the radio.

The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) hit out at Modi for not raising the issues of corruption, unemployment and inflation during the programme, accusing him of using it as a platform to brandish his government’s achievements.

“It is hypocritical. Modi had said he discusses governmentrelated work in government departments. Yet, on Mann Ki Baat, he was making the nation count the number of schemes implemented,” AAP leader Dilip Pandey told ANI. “When it comes to the party’s decisionmaking, you remain quiet. Why? Don’t you remember how Manmohan Singh’s silence had silenced the Congress in the elections? Don’t you think the BJP might have to face similar consequences?”