Mangalore: Committed to bringing back black money - Modi during 'Chai Pe Charcha'
Daijiworld Media Network – Mangalore (DV)
Mangalore, Feb 12: Scores of people thronged to the premises of New Tajmahal Cafe at Kodialbail here on Wednesday February 12 to take part in the unique 'Chai pe Charcha' live interactive session with BJP prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi.
The session was organized by Citizens for Accountable Governance (CAG) in association with NaMo Brigade.
The live video conferencing with Modi took place at 1,000 tea stall across 300 cities in the country. Among these, people at 30 locations had the opportunity to interact with Modi and ask him questions, while those in rest of the locations watched on televisions or projectors.
In south India, three cities were chosen for live interaction with Modi - Mangalore, Bangalore and Thiruvananthapuram. In Mangalore, people watched Modi interact at 5 locations, and interated with him at one location, that is at Kodialbail.
Narendra Modi came online at 6 pm and answered a number of questions from people across the country. He also spoke on his experience as a tea seller in his childhood and spoke on his vision to free India from corruption.
During the interaction, Modi said that if BJP comes to power at the centre, a task force will be set up to bring each and every rupee of the black money deposited in foreign banks by Indians. "I am committed to bringing black money back to India. This money belongs to the poor people of this country," he said.
He spoke on how he faced insults as a tea seller in his childhood and grew in experience by interacting with various people in different places.
"I will strive to provide good governance to the people of this country. Mahatma Gandhi dreamt of 'Swaraj' but even after Independence we could not realize his dream. I will strive to develop this country and make it 'Vishwa Guru' and 'Shresht Bharat'," he said.
Nishmitha Prabhu, final year BCA student, in her interaction with Modi, suggested that accountability should be maintained at every level of the system and and a status report of every politician and official of every department should be maintained.
However, though Nishmitha was third in line to make her suggestion, a technical issue cropped up and the connection was lost, and she had to wait till the end for Modi's response.
Responding to her suggestion at the end of the session, Modi said, "The government should be accountable. The concept of 'output' that we have today should be tranformed into 'outcome', by which accountability will increase." Giving an example, he said, "The fact that Rs 200 has been spent on something is not an issue, but what is important is whether the work that the money is spent on has been done or not...whether people for whose welfare money is spent are benefited or not. Taking care of all these things is called 'outcome'.
"Today the accountability of government is based on 'output'. We have to make it 'outcome'. The government should be accountable for each and every rupee and each and every minute. We are fortunate to have a very vibrant media in this country, because of which every activity is known to the people. There is a healthy competition. The more we strengthen the pillars of democracy, the better will be our accountability. It is important for government to be accountable, and those who do not respect it do not believe in public participation. The most important factor in public participation is accountability and responsibility. Every Indian should have the right to ask the government to account itself, and every parliamentarian should have the responsibility of being accountable.
"I fully agree with the suggestion made from Mangalore. Thank you for your suggestion," he added, to cheer and applause of the gathered crowd.
He also lauded technology that enabled him to interact live with so many people simultaneously.