Jann ki Baat to mark NDA govt's 3rd anniversary

 After being away from the glare for a long time, Union minister Smriti Zubin Irani was drafted by the BJP brass to announce a 20-day mega programme to celebrate the Narendra Modi government’s third anniversary.

The textiles minister turned up at the BJP’s 11, Ashoka Road headquarters on Monday, second time in less than a month, to announce that Prime Minister Narendra Modi will now seek people’s feedback on his government’s welfare schemes through ‘Jann ki Baat’.

After winding up the press conference, she rushed for her own ministry’s official interaction with reporters on the achievements of the last three years. Every other Union minister is doing this exercise to inform people mid-way to the 2019 general elections.

Smriti was called by the BJP to hold a press meet on April 24 on Shah’s drive to expand the party’s base in states where its presence is abysmal. That brought her back on the party’s roll call for Union ministers tasked with reaching out to the media. Modi, in the last Cabinet reshuffle on July 5, 2016, had taken away the high-profile HRD portfolio to shift Smriti to the less hyped textiles ministry.

Since May 26, the government and the BJP will celebrate, in Irani’s words — “MODI FEST” which when expanded reads “Making of Developed India’s Festival”.

Through Jann ki Baat, a phrase borrowed from Modi’s Mann ki Baat radio broadcast, people will be encouraged to send messages to the prime minister on their take on different schemes such as Jan Dhan, Mudra, Ujala and crop insurance, and give suggestions for good governance, the Union minister said.

The programme will roll out with Modi inaugurating development projects in Assam, followed by an address at a rally in Guwahati on May 26.

So far no other engagement of the prime minister has been tagged with anniversary celebrations as the better strategy is to have his ministers and the party engage in media blitzkrieg, noted a BJP leader.

BJP general secretary Arun Singh, who jointly addressed the media, said more than 450 party leaders, led by party president Amit Shah and including the council of ministers, NDA chief ministers, state ministers and other office bearers, will hold 900 events across the country.