Prime Minister Narendra Modi's radio broadcast programme Mann ki Baat has been described as reflecting his “strong passion for dialogue” by Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe who has written the preface to the book “Mann Ki Baat: a social revolution on Radio” .
“Talking on a one hour radio show once a month while addressing challenging tasks as Prime Minister requires tremendous efforts, I cannot but feel his strong passion for dialogue,” says Mr Abe.
The book marks the journey of the programme which will complete 3 years in October. It is being released on May 26 at Rashtrapati Bhawan with the first copy to be presented to President Pranab Mukherjee.
Apart from vignettes like how the name for the programme came about - Prime Minister Modi is said to have exclaimed, “ arre isme kya baat hai, kaho kuch halki phulki Mann ki baat karunga ” (why make a big fuss, it will be just a heart to heart talk) — the book will also go into analytics on what was followed up in terms of feedback from listeners, and even has chapter on how the phrase Mann Ki Baat has entered the political lexicon in order to mock Prime Minister Modi.
School education and sanitation are the two big mentions in all Mann Ki Baat broadcasts, with one episode in February 2016 (before the annual board exams) with 60 mentions of school education and students. Prime Minister Modi speaks of being influenced by U.S. presidents of yore and the tremendous impact that the radio broadcast of Martin Luther King Jr's epoch making speech “I have a dream” had on those who heard it. “So many people heard Martin Luther King’s ‘I have a dream’ speech on the radio. It has a transformative power like no other medium,” Prime Minister Modi is quoted as saying in the book.
