NEW DELHI: Addressing his last ‘Mann Ki Baat’ before the elections, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday promised that he would be back in May. During the address, he spoke of the valour of the 40 CRPF personnel killed in the February 14 suicide bombing in Pulwama, Kashmir and said their sacrifice will keep “inspiring us relentlessly to uproot the very base of terrorism”.
“In the next two months, we will be busy in the hustle-bustle of the general elections. I myself will also be a candidate during this election. In maintaining respect for healthy democratic traditions, the next episode of ‘Mann Ki Baat’ will be broadcast on the last Sunday of the month of May,” the PM said.
“This means I shall take up our thoughts and ideas accumulated over the three months of March, April and entire May after the elections, with confidence anew. With the power of your blessings, once again I shall begin this series of conversations ...” Modi said.
In an apparent reference to the killing of the Jaish-e-Mohammad terrorists who the Army said were masterminds of the Pulwama attack, he said “retributive action was accomplished” within 100 hours of the attack.
Paying tributes to security forces, PM Modi said he will dedicate a National War Memorial to them on Monday. “I believe that for our countrymen, a visit to the National War Memorial will be akin to a pilgrimage to a holy place. The National Soldiers’ Memorial is a symbol of the nation’s gratitude to those who made the supreme sacrifice,” he said.
Modi also paid tribute to tribal warrior Birsa Munda, pioneering industrialist Jamsetji Tata, whose birth anniversary falls on March 3, and former prime minister Morarji Desai, who was born on February 29, during the address.