Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday dedicated this year’s Diwali to the armed forces in his monthly video address Mann Ki Baat, saying ‘we sleep peacefully because you guard our borders’.
The soldiers, he said, “stand guard for us in the desert on the mountains. Someone is guarding our industry, others our airports…”
“There is not one child in the country who doesn’t have respect and love for our armed forces,” he added.
The Prime Minister’s comments come in the wake of the last month’s surgical strikes by the Indian Army at terror camps across the Line of Control after an attack by Pakistani terrorists in Kashmir’s Uri left 19 soldiers dead.
In the following days, he has launched a three-minute video appeal, asking people to send Diwali greetings to soldiers serving in different parts of the country. The messages can be sent on the Narendra Modi app of the website www.mygov.in.
Refering to #sandesh2soldiers campaign, he said it has been a success. “Everyone has sent messages to the forces – all its branches.”
The Prime Minister has retweeted many of the messages that people are tweeting using with the hashtag #Sandesh2Soldiers.
Among those who posted greetings are actors Akshay Kumar, Salman Khan and Aamir Khan, cricketer Virender Sehwag, Industrialist Anand Mahindra, singer Kailash Kher and several politicians.
Sources in the Prime Minister’s Office said this was the first time that PM Modi had appeared in a video related to a cause.
