‘New India will be free of casteism, communalism’
MANN KI BAAT Modi urges youth turning 18 in the new year to register as voters
NEW DELHI : In his last address in 2017 as part of his radio show Mann Ki Baat, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday said the country would be “free from the poison of casteism, communalism, terrorism and corruption”, as he called upon people to take the path of progress.
Modi called upon the “New India youth” to “take concrete steps in the journey from ‘positive India’ to ‘progressive India’.”
Re calling how Mahatma Gandhi turned the freedom movement into am ass struggle, Mo di said that another mass movement was required to make “a magnificent, glorious 21st century India”. “A mass movement of development, a mass movement to build a capable and strong India,” he added.
The PM reiterated his commitment to make India free from casteism and other social evils. “...the new India will be free from the poison of casteism, communalism, terrorism and corruption; free from filth and poverty.”
Modi added that his vision of New India also includes equal opportunities for everyone .“New India will be a place where peace, unity and amity will be our guiding force,” he said.
The Opposition had in 2017 repeatedly raised the issues of corruption and communalism. The newly elected Congress president, Rahul Gandhi, had on several occasions slammed the BJP for “dividing the society along communal lines” and taking on Modi for his “lies”.
In his last speech of 2017, Modi didn’ t speak much on the success of his government but mentioned Anjum Bashir Khan Khattak, a Kashmir Administrative Services topper, for being an “inspiration” to the whole of India.
“He actually extricated himself from the sting of terrorism and hatred and topped in the Kashmir Administrative Examination. You will be surprised to know that terrorists had set his ancestral home on fire in 1990,” Modi said.
He said people born in the year 2000 or later would gradually begin to become eligible voters from January 1,2018.“The Indian democracy welcomes the voters of the 21 st century, the‘ new India voters’. I congratulate our youth and urge them to register themselves as voters.”
The PM once again reiterated the importance of cleanliness, the task his government has undertaken on a mission mode, and said, “A strong resolve of maintaining cleanliness also is as important as the strict discipline observed during worship.”
Mo di announced that Cleanliness Survey ,2018, the largest in the world, will start from January 4 to March 10 to evaluate the achievements of the mission in the urban areas. This survey will cover a population of more than 40 crore in more than four thousand cities.
‘MOCK PARLIAMENT’
In yet another bid to connect with the country’s youth, Modi suggested that a ‘mock Parliament’ in Delhi around the Independence Day in New Delhi, comprising a young representative selected from every district of the country who would deliberate on how a New India could be formed in the next five years.
He said mock parliaments should be organised in every district before the proposed event in August in the national capital. It could be about how “the youth between 18 and 25 could sit together and brain storm about New India, find ways and chalk out plans”.
The PM added that the youth can “debate on how a New India could be formed in the next five years, how resolve can be transformed into reality”.