Communication important for people, says minister

Marking the completion of Modi government's 75 days in office, Union Minister Prakash Javadekar flagged the power and need of communication, saying it was the biggest punishment when people store everything in their hearts and are unable to communicate to anyone about it.

“When you cannot talk to anyone, you cannot contact anyone and you have no tool to communicate, that is the biggest punishment," Javadekar said at an event organised to present Modi government's 75 days' report card and confer National Community Radio Awards for the year 2018 and 2019.

His remarks, however, came when he was highlighting the significance of the community radios. Minister said that his ministry will try to increase the number of these radio stations in the country to 500 “soon” from the current 262.

At the event, Javadekar, who holds Information and Broadcasting (I&B) ministry portfolio, released a 46-page booklet, titled 'Jan Connect' listing the decisions and steps taken during the first 75 days of Modi 2.0 government to highlight its “clear intentions and decisive actions” among which scrapping of special status to J&K and criminalisation of triple talaq found prominent mention.

Javadekar hailed the abrogation of Article 370 and 35(A) from the Jammu and Kashmir as "a historic decision."

"We did a lot of work. In Kashmir, people did not get the right to development like the rest of the country. So that they get this right of development, Article 370 happened. It is a historic decision. The development that Jammu and Kashmir did not have, it will get it now," he said.

The government has come up with a report card to mark its 75 days in office two days after the ruling BJP unveiled its plan hold a month-long public contact and awareness programme primarily to apprise people with “reasons, rationale and ramifications” of Modi government's decision to revoke provisions of Article 370 and 35 (A) of the Constitution in J&K.