VIP mindset must go: PM

Ajay Banerjee

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, April 30

Prime Minister Narendra Modi yet again hit out at the “VIP culture” today, saying removal of red beacons atop government vehicles was a symbolic step and the time has come to remove the “VIP culture” from the minds.

Addressing the nation through radio talk programme “Mann ki Baat”, Modi said “in our country there exists an atmosphere of disdain towards the VIP culture”.

A red beacon used to be fixed atop the vehicle, atop the car, but slowly and steadily it permeated into the psyche and got firmly entrenched in the mindset. The red beacon now has gone for good, but nobody can say with certainty if it has disappeared from the mindset, the PM said.

Modi also had a suggestion for young people who have just finished their examination and are planning for vacations in the summers. He asked them to come out of their “comfort zone”.

He feared children while struggling to achieve high scores had become robots and were going about with life as a machine. “It’s good to have aspirations, but make sure the human element is not lost,” he observed. He asked the youth to learn singing, swimming or drawing to ease out their minds from studies.

“New things will make you think out of the box. Do something out of box now, for when you are at the stage of having a career, you will not have time then,” Modi suggested.

For the vacations, he suggested three things — go to a new place; try out new schemes and have new experiences. “Do things during vacations that you have not done before.”

Addressing the middle class and “well-off” youth, he said: “Have you tried travelling in an unreserved train compartment? Try it for 24 hours. What do those passengers talk? You will possibly learn more things in 48 hours than you would in one year.”

He asked the youth from educated families to teach poor children various skills. The PM also addressed the issue of climate change, saying the heat wave being experienced in the country during March-April was akin to the summer of May-June.

‘EPI should replace VIP’

The concept behind the ‘New India’ is that EPI should replace VIP. EPI means every person is important. We should accept the importance of 125 crore Indians— Narendra Modi, PM