NEW DELHI: The ‘Mann Ki Baat’ of Narendra Modi, the tech-savviest Prime Minister to date, took Twitter by storm on Sunday when he asked people to post selfies with their daughters. The hashtag #SelfieWithDaughter soon started trending worldwide, with several fathers as well as mothers tweeting pictures of themselves with their daughters.
In his monthly radio address, the Prime Minister said he was impressed by Sunil Jaglan, sarpanch of Haryana’s Bibipur, who started this initiative in his village.
While urging the people to follow Jaglan’s example and post selfies with their daughters on social media, Modi stressed on the campaign to save the girl child.
“I urge all of you, share a #SelfieWithDaughter. Also share a tagline that will encourage ‘Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao’,” he said.
Nisha Biswal, the US’s Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asia, too tweeted a photograph with her daughters, saying “love the #SelfieWithDaughter idea @narendramodi.” Biswal tweeted another picture with her father: “#SelfieWithDaughter w my dad who along w my mom believed in their daughter and invested in her.”
Women’s Schemes
After bagging two Guinness World records for the spectacular International Yoga Day show last week, Prime Minister Narendra Modi is now eyeing Raksha Bandhan to ensure that women could be enrolled in the government’s social security schemes as gift for the festival. Although Raksha Bandhan, a Hindu festival that celebrates the love and duty between brothers and sisters, is still two months away, Modi called for a people’s movement before August 29 to ensure that “mothers and sisters are enrolled in social security schemes.”
“We must create a people’s movement before ‘Raksha Bandhan’ where we should enrol mothers and sisters... We must gift these social security schemes -- of either Rs 12 or Rs 330 -- for the sisters working as cooks or maids in our houses or in the field,” the Prime Minister said in his radio address.
He also said that social security schemes launched by the Centre could be the biggest ‘Raksha Bandhan’ gift and people must celebrate this festival.