Everyone has sent messages to the forces, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said in Mann ki Baat.
Highlights
- PM Modi is on a tour of border areas to meet soldiers on Diwali
- In Mann Ki Baat, the PM urged to dedicate the festival to our soldiers
- In campaign #Sandesh2Soldiers, PM asked people to greet army on Diwali
Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who dedicated this year's Diwali to the armed forces in his monthly video address Mann Ki Baat, also took a tour of border areas, meeting the soldiers on duty there.
During his visit, he tweeted:
The Prime Minister said that he also spent time with the locals there:
On his first two Diwalis in office, PM Modi had visited the country's borders to celebrate the festival with soldiers there.
"We sleep peacefully because you guard our borders," he had said in his address to the nation this morning The soldiers, he said, "stand guard for us in the desert on the mountains. Someone is guarding our industry, others our airports..."
"Be it the BSF (Border Security Force), CRPF (Central Reserve Police Force), Assam Rifles, ITBP (Indo Tibetan Border Police), Navy, Air Force, our jawans are on duty and guarding us. That is why we are celebrating Diwali joyfully," the Prime Minister said. "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.