Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday conveyed greetings to the nation on the beginning of the holy month of Islamic calendar, Ramazan.
“Importance is given to prayer, spirituality and charity during this month. We are very lucky that our ancestors made such rituals, that today Indian can be proud of its diversity. The diversity of the nation is our strength,” he said in his 32nd ‘Mann Ki Baat’ address.
The Prime Minister further said that both theist and atheists co-exist in this country and that we have learnt to co-exist peacefully with each other without any issues.
“Proud that all religions in the world exist in India,” he added.
However, this is not the first instance when Mr. Modi talked about Muslims, earlier too he cited Muslim individuals as an examples.
Imran Khan
Expounding his vision of India, Prime Minister Narendra Modi earlier, recalled Imran Khan of Alwar, Rajasthan, who has made about 50 education apps and distributed them for free.
Prime Minister Modi, who was addressing the Indian diaspora at the Wembley Stadium, said that he was sure of India’s bright future because his vision of India, was the India of Imran Khan who created and gave education apps for free.
Imran Khan, a 34-year-old mathematics teacher at a government Sanskrit senior secondary school in Rajasthan’s Alwar district, has created 42 Android apps and counting.
He developed his first app – the NCERT Learn Science – for the Class 9 students in 2012. Of all the apps he has made so far, General Science in Hindi is the top grosser, with around 500,000 downloads.
Later there were reports that after Narendra Modi’s praise of Imran Khan, Rajasthan government offered him a job under Science and Technology Department.
Javed Ahmed Tak
In 2015, in one of the “Mann Ki Baat” programmes, Narendra Modi talked about Javed Ahmed Dak of Bijbehara in Anantnag district in south Kashmir.
According to news published in India Today, in 1996, Javed Ahmed Tak was attacked by militants who left him paralyzed for life. However, this incident does not affect his will power. He started school for differently-abled children at Bijbehara.
Noor Jahan
Talking about the excellent work of Noor Jahan of UP’s Kanpur, Narendra Modi praised her in another Mann Ki Baat program.
It is to be mentioned that Noor Jahan has been supplying solar lamps to villagers in Kanpur’s Beri Dariyawan. Earlier, she was a daily wage labourer. She charges only Rs. 3.30 for every lamp. Mr. Modi applauded her efforts.
Karimul Haque
Narendra Modi Govt. picked Karimul Haque for Padma Shri award this year for his unique way of doing social service. Haque has been running a free ambulance service for the past twenty years for local residents of Jalpiaguri district of West Bengal to ensure that no one ever died due to lack of timely medical service. He had started the service after he lost his mother due to unavailability of an ambulance.
Talking at India Today’s Editors’ Round Table discussion programme, Ravi Shankar Prasad, Union Minister narrated how PM Modi got in touch with Karimul Haque, India Today reported.
According to the SDO, at least 3,500 to 4,000 patients have benefitted from his 24-hour free service at his village and surrounding areas.
Akbar Sahab
A Dubai-based Indian painter, Akbar Sahab gave sketches for book on Mann Ki Baat. This book was launched at the Rashtrapati Bhavan in the presence of President Pranab Mukherjee, Vice-President Hamid Ansari and Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan.
Talking on the book launch, Mr. Modi said, “I was pleasantly surprised when this book was in the news again because Akbar Sahab an artist living in Abu Dhabi, proposed that he wishes to sketch the topics on which various episodes of ‘Mann Ki Baat’ were based, and without taking a single rupee Akbar sahab transformed ‘Mann Ki Baat’ into art as a gesture of his love. I am grateful to Akbar Sahab.”
It may be noted when PM Modi visited UAE in 2015, Akbar Saheb had gifted a series of his paintings.