Prime Minister Narendra Modi must be lauded for his Mann Ki Baat programme that he skilfully employs to reach out to the masses for the past over eight years. Its 100-th episode was an occasion for celebration and the UN broadcast it live at its headquarters in New York. Modi is first and foremost a performer on the political stage and yet he wisely kept politics out of this unique endeavour. His claim is that this is the Mann Ki Baat of the crores of Indians and that it’s strengthening the social fabric of India. The Congress party has termed this a Maun Ki Baat, as Modi remained “silent” on the pressing issues of the day. Truth obviously lies somewhere in between.
Mann Ki Baat has been motivational, inspirational and educative while its principal audience principally comprises ordinary folks, who have time at hand on a sweet Sunday. This is more so for the women across villages as All India Radio and Doordarshan are the sole mediums that provide a staple diet of information and entertainment to them by the hour. Modi has shrewdly caught onto these in the form of a direct interaction with the masses. The subjects he took up were appealing to their ordinary senses – like Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao, the use of Khadi, the inspirational stories of ordinary men and women who charted out an exemplary course in various walks of life, the unknown heroes and heroines in the rural and urban landscapes. There have also been praises of the legendary figures of the past like Babasaheb Ambedkar, community leaders across states and regions; a clear attempt on the part of the PM to endear himself to such segments of the population.
Question is, do we require to learn history from a Prime Minister or whether showering platitudes on the dead would take the nation forward. Jawaharlal Nehru wrote Discovery of India from jail before he became PM. Modi hesitates to speak about serious matters concerning governance even as a PM leading the nation as its chief executive can, from a vantage point, enlighten the public on the course that his government and the nation are taking in multiple fields. The PM rather skirts such matters, a reason why the educated and enlightened upper segments of the society are disinclined to spare their time for this programme. It is clear from the PM’s tone that he specifically targets the lower rungs of the society, or the children, the grandmas and such like. People are missing an opportunity to learn about the state of the nation or its governance today. What is worse is that the PM has remained silent on the ongoing protests by female wrestlers against sexual harassment by those running the federation. Why pick and choose only some topics? As PM, Modi must address all sections of the citizenry.
