PM Narendra Modi said the monthly radio programme had allowed him to appreciate the virtues in people he had met or spoken to when he addressed the 100th episode of "Mann Ki Baat." Additionally, he claimed that it satisfied the "emptiness" he experienced upon arriving in the capital from Gujarat in 2014.
Stating that the broadcast was not just a programme but a “matter of faith and spiritual journey” for him, Modi described Mann Ki Baat as a great medium through which to learn from the qualities of others, adding that it allowed him to connect with the people of the country like he used to when he was Gujarat chief minister.
The BJP has transformed the 100th episode of the Mann Ki Baat into a massive outreach effort, with key party figures, including ministers, attending the speech at various locations. Eminent citizens joined party-ruled state chief ministers and governors at their official houses throughout the programme.
“After coming to Delhi in 2014, I found that life here was very different. The nature of the work is different, the responsibility is different, one is bound by circumstances, the rigours of security and time limits. In the initial days, something felt different, there was an emptiness. Fifty years ago, I did not leave my home just to find one day it would be difficult to contact the people of my own country. The very countrymen who are my everything… I could not live separated from them. Mann Ki Baat gave me a solution to this challenge, a way to connect with the common man,” the PM said.
More than 11,00,000 people from round the world posted pictures while listening to Mann Ki Baat. Around 900,000 tweets with billions of impressions were registered on social media. The common man at home, in societies and communities across the country tuned in for the programme. Audiences at international embassies of India across the world listened to the broadcast. The diaspora also organised hundreds of programmes across the globe to watch Mann Ki Baat, the sources said. CMs and Union ministers were present for screenings at various places.
Raj Bhawans invited people from their state who had been mentioned in Mann Ki Baat and special screenings of Mann Ki Baat were organised. Mann Ki Baat was also made available in many community centres and railway stations across the country with porters to police personnel seen listening to the broadcast.