Describing voting as a ‘sacred duty,’ Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday said those who do not vote should feel the ‘pain’ of not exercising their franchise. He also called upon youth to perform their responsibility of voting.

In his monthly radio broadcast Mann ki Baat, he praised the Election Commission of India (ECI) for its meticulous effort to ensure that even a single voter in a remote part of the country can cast his or her vote. He also pointed out the Election Commission came into being on January 25, 1950, a day before India became a Republic.

First-time voters

Mr. Modi pointed out that people born in the 21st century will be voting for the time in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls and urged youth to register as voters.

“All of us must realise that being a voter, earning the right to vote is an important rite of passage in one’s life. Simultaneously, the sentiment that voting is our sacred duty, should grow within us naturally. For any reason, if one is not able to vote, it should pain one,” Mr. Modi said.

Talking about of first-time voters, he said, “They face the opportunity of shouldering responsibilities pertaining to the country. They have embarked upon the journey of being partners in nation building. The time has come for a confluence of individual dreams and the nation’s dream.”

On exams

The Prime Minister also announced that he would holding a pariksha pe charcha (discussion about exams) on the forthcoming Board exams with students and parents on January 29.

In other issues, the Prime Minister’s first Mann Ki Baat for 2019 focussed on the achievements of the youth including the recent Khelo India games or the satellite launched by students.

“On January 24 'Kalam SAT' fashioned by our students had been launched. The Sounding Rockets made by Odisha university students have also created many records. The number of successful space missions attempted since the country's independence till 2014 have been equal to those successfully completed in the past four years," he said.

The Prime Minister began his broadcast with a tribute to the late Shri Shivakumara Swami of the Siddaganga Math who passed away on January 21

Remembering Saint Ravidas whose birth anniversary is on February 19, Mr Modi reminded the people of Ravidas’ words that rued the fact that ‘man has been divided into castes and the human in him has disappeared’.