Citing the example of himself and his mother, “who is about hundred years old” and got vaccinated, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday asked people, particularly those in rural India, to get inoculated by shedding ‘vaccine hesitancy’ and “not being carried away by rumours”.
Speaking in his latest episode of ‘Mann Ki Baat’ , the Prime Minister also spoke of the upcoming Tokyo Olympics, the Indian participants and the need to support them even as he remembered the late Indian Olympian Milkha Singh who died recently due to post-Covid complications.
The Prime Minister told people that he and his mother have both taken the two doses of vaccines and asked them too to get vaccinated, cautioning them that the threat of COVID-19 was still around. He asked people not to believe in rumours and trust science and Indian scientists.
The PM pointed out that a record number of 86 lakh doses, the highest in a single day, were administered on June 21 at the beginning of the new phase of vaccination under which all adults are being given free jabs.
Modi also spoke to residents of Dulariya village in Betul district of Madhya Pradesh and advised them to take the COVID-19 vaccine amidst their reservations about the government’s vaccination drive.
“The threat of COVID-19 remains, and we have to focus on vaccination as well as follow COVID-19 protocols,” he said.
The Prime Minister shouted three-cheers for the Indian Olympic contingent and reminded that many Indian sportspersons have made it to the Olympic games the hard way and despite having a poor economic background.
He gave the example of Deepika Kumari, the ace Indian archer from Ranchi, Jharkhand, being the daughter of an auto-rickshaw driver.
“Every athlete who is going to Tokyo has worked hard. They are going there to win hearts. It must be our endeavour to support our team and not put pressure on the team,” said the Prime Minister.
Though mainly focussing on containing Covid-19 by way of vaccination, the Prime Minister also spoke of water conservation as the Monsoon is already underway. He cited many novel individual experiments like digging of pits or building mud walls to conserve ground water.
Modi spoke to a cross-section of people in villages and urged them to spread the right awareness about vaccines and how safe they are for everyone.
Modi during his radio address read out a post of a Chennai resident Guru Prasad who said that he had brought out an e-book comprising all of PM’s comments on Tamil language and Tamil Nadu in his ‘mann ki baat’ episodes. Prasad requested the PM to upload the e-book on NaMo app. Modi expressed happiness about Prasad’s letter and described Tamil as the oldest language of the world of which everyone should be proud of.
Modi assured the Chennai resident that his e-book would be uploaded on the NaMo app at the earliest.