New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday said the consecration ceremony at the Ram temple in Ayodhya brought crores of people together, and asserted that the collective strength of the country was visible around the time of the event.
In the first Mann Ki Baat broadcast of this year, Modi said the governance of Lord Ram was a source of inspiration for Constitution makers.
‘And that is why on January 22 in Ayodhya I had talked about ‘Dev to Desh’ and ‘Ram to Rashtra’,’ he said.
The consecration ceremony in Ayodhya has brought crores of people of the country together, he said.
‘Everyone’s feeling is the same, everyone’s devotion is the same. Ram is in everyone’s words, Ram is in everyone’s heart,’ Modi said. During this period, many people sang Ram bhajans and dedicated them to Lord Ram, while on January 22 evening the whole country lit ‘Ram Jyoti’ and celebrated Diwali, he noted.
‘During this time, the collective strength of the country was visible which also forms the basis of our pledge of a developed India,’ he said.
The collective power will take the country to new heights of progress, he added.
In his broadcast, Modi also spoke about the Padma awards and said that many people honoured with the awards recently were those who worked at grassroots and away from the limelight to make big changes.
‘I am very happy that the system of Padma awards has transformed completely in the last decade. Now it has become people’s Padma,’ he said.
The contribution of each one of the Padma awardees is an inspiration for the countrymen, he said and added that many of them were those who brought glory to the country in the world of classical dance, classical music, folk dance, theatre and bhajans.
Many people from abroad have also been honoured with the Padma award, as their work is rendering new heights to Indian culture and heritage, he said.
Lauding the presence of women power in the Republic Day parade, the prime minister said out of the 20 contingents, 11 were all-women.
‘We saw that even in the tableaux that went by, all the artistes were women. About one and a half thousand daughters took part in the cultural programs that took place,’
he said.