Prime Minister Narendra Modi said the concept of VIP should be replaced by “EPI”, meaning “Every Person is Important”. Government’s concept of ‘New India’ is that instead of ‘VIP’, more importance should be given to the ‘EPI’ culture, he said.
In the 31st edition of his radio address Mann Ki Baat, the Prime Minister also urged youths of middle-class families to come out of their comfort zones this summer vacation and try to gather new experiences like travelling in a second-class compartment for 24 hours, playing with underprivileged children and imparting knowledge about digital technology to those who don’t have it.
In the 31st edition of his radio address Mann Ki Baat, the Prime Minister also urged youths of middle-class families to come out of their comfort zones this summer vacation and try to gather new experiences like travelling in a second-class compartment for 24 hours, playing with underprivileged children and imparting knowledge about digital technology to those who don’t have it.
On the red beacon decision, which he had suddenly announced during a Cabinet meeting on April 19, the Prime Minister said the decision is aimed at removing the VIP culture from the mindset of people. “Generally speaking, in our country there exists an atmosphere of disdain towards VIP culture. But that it runs so very deep, I just experienced, when the government recently decided that no person in India, whatsoever his status might be, will move with a red beacon atop his vehicle. In a way, it had become a symbol of the VIP culture,” he said.
Calling for fighting the VIP mindset, he said, “experience tells us that whereas the red beacon used to be fixed atop the vehicle, atop the car, slowly and steadily it permeated into the psyche and got firmly entrenched in the mindset. The red beacon now has gone for good but nobody can say with certainty that the same in the mindset has also disappeared.
