Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday asserted that he will return to power after the ensuing elections and will address the nation again in ‘Mann-Ki Baat’ radio broadcast from the last Sunday of May month.
“Next two months, we all will get engaged in elections process. I will be a candidate myself and hence keeping the high traditions of democracy and as a mark of respect to it, the next Mann Ki Baat session will be held on last Sunday of May 2019,” Prime Minister said in his monthly and the 53rd radio broadcast over All India Radio.
“Mein chunao ke baad, ek naye vishwas ke saath apke ashirwad ke sath phir ek baar Mann Ki Baat
ke madhyam sey hamari baat chit ke silsiley ke arambh karunga…aur saalon tak apse mann ki baat karta rahunga (I will be back again in Mann Ki Baat programme with a renewed faith, confidence and equipped with your blessings. I will be back with our chit chat again in May and will continue it for years),” Mr Modi said signing off the uniquely designed radio programme.
Paying tributes to former Prime Minister Morarji Desai, Mr Modi also sought to make a veiled attack on Indira Gandhi-led regime for imposing Emergency in 1970s.
“It was during the tenure of Morarji Desai that the Constitutional Amendment was withdrawn which was aimed at diluting even the powers of the Supreme Court,” he said.
Considered a brain child of Mr Modi, the Mann Ki Baat radio broadcast (roughly meaning heart to heart talks to countrymen and women) was started on and from October 3, 2014.
Since television connection is not available in every house and villages in India, radio was chosen to be the medium for the programme, owing to its wider reach. An estimated 90 per cent of the total Indian population is reachable over the medium.
The Prime Minister more often chose to talk about day-to-day issues and generally avoided hardcore political matters in Mann-Ki-Baat.
