PMO to bring out collected speeches of Narendra Modi
The task is to be accomplished by February 2019, just before the commencement of Lok Sabha polls.
New Delhi: Soon political aficionados, researchers, analysts and students will be able to access all the speeches of Prime Minister Narendra Modi — from the time he assumed office in May 2014 till the middle of 2018 — as the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) is seeking to compile all his lectures and speeches across the country and abroad. The task is to be accomplished by February 2019, just before the commencement of Lok Sabha polls.
According to highly placed sources, the PMO has directed all the ministries and departments to find and collate all the speeches which the Prime Minister has delivered and hand them over to the ministry of information and broadcasting (I&B) for compilation.
They added that the collected speeches will be edited by a panel of three editors and is likely to be brought out in four volumes. The editors in charge are journalist and columnist Kanchan Gupta, former JNU faculty member and well-known academic Pushpesh Pant and Sachchidanand Joshi, member secretary of Indira Gandhi National Centre for Arts (IGNCA).
The PMO, sources said, had issued directions regarding this in October, setting a deadline of four months, i.e. February next year. Subsequently the I&B sought urgent cooperation from all ministries and departments as the PMO is constantly monitoring its progress and had asked it to strictly adhere to the deadline.
However, considering the fact that Mr Modi has, during the past four-and-a- half years as Prime Minister, spoken at hundreds of events of various hues — including official functions, political rallies, cultural shows, corporate launches, international fora, and even his monthly radio show — compiling all the speeches before the deadline it is proving to be a humungous task for all the departments. Also, as several of Mr Modi’s talks contain political overtones, it will be a tricky task to edit the collection.
The panel of editors, sources said, has been appointed to look into these aspects and make it a balanced and nuanced piece of work.