New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi in his monthly 'Mann ki Baat' radio address on Sunday hailed the role of leaders such as Mahatma Gandhi, BR Ambedkar, Lal Bahadur Shastri, Ram Manohar Lohia, Charan Singh and Devi Lal for recognising agriculture and the farmer as vital aspects of the nation's economy.


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Following are his top quotes:


- PM Modi said that Ambedkar showed us that to succeed it is not necessary for a person to be born in an illustrious or rich family, but even those who are born in poor families in India can dare to dream their dreams and realise those dreams by achieving success.


- The PM said he himself is an example of Ambedkar's philosophy. "Many people mocked Ambedkar, tried to pull him back and made every possible effort to ensure that the son of an impoverished and backward family does not progress in life, be something and succeed in life. But, the picture of new India is altogether different. It is an India which is Ambedkar's India, of the poor and the backward," he said.


- Years ago, PM Modi said, Ambedkar spoke of India's industrialisation as a means to generate new jobs and push development. "Today, the campaign of Make in India is progressing successfully in consonance with Ambedkar's dream of India as an industrial superpower - that vision of his has become our inspiration today," the PM said.


- He also hailed the role of Ambedkar in propagating the idea of having ports and waterways to boost the economy. PM Modi said when India was discussing Partition, the World War II and the Cold War, Ambedkar "in a way" laid the foundation of 'Team India's' spirit. Ambedkar had talked about the importance of federalism, federal system and stressed on the Centre and states working together for the uplift of the country, he said.


"Today, we have adopted in all aspects of governance the mantra of co-operative federalism and going a step further, we have adopted competitive cooperative federalism," PM Modi said.


- Referring to the agriculture sector, the PM said, from Mahatma Gandhi to Lal Bahadur Shastri, Ram Manohar Lohia, Charan Singh, and Devi Lal - all recognised agriculture and the farmer as vital aspects of the nation's economy and also for the common man's life. He recalled Mahatma Gandhi's words that to forget how to dig the earth and to tend the soil, is to forget ourselves."


- PM Modi said Shastri insisted on improvised agricultural infrastructure, while Lohia talked of creating a mass awakening about necessary measures to ensure a better income for farmers.


- He recalled that Charan Singh in his speech in 1979 had urged farmers to use new technology and to adopt new innovations and underlined their vital significance.


- The PM pointed out that in this year's budget decision has been taken to ensure that farmers get a fair price for their produce.


- He said, it has been decided that the MSP of notified crops will be fixed at least one and a half times of their cost and will include labour cost of other workers employed, expenses incurred on own animals and cost of animals and machinery taken on rent, cost of seeds, cost of each type of fertilizer used, irrigation cost, land revenue paid to the state government, interest paid on working capital, ground rent in case of leased land. 


- PM Modi urged the people to be more conscious about preventive health care because prevention was not only beneficial for a person but also for his or her family and society. He also said the government has set a target to free India from tuberculosis by 2025 and that the government and insurance companies will jointly provide Rs 5 lakh insurance cover to about 10 crore families per year.


- "Preventive healthcare is the least costly and the easiest one as well. As much as we are conscious about preventive healthcare, it will be beneficial for the person, his family and society," the PM said. He also stressed on the need for sanitisation because "a healthy India is as vital as clean India".

- "I believe that healthy India and clean India are supplementary to each other. The country has moved ahead in the health sector with a conventional approach. "Earlier, every health-related work was the responsibility of the Union Health Ministry only. But in the current scenario, every department, state governments and other departments are working together for a healthy India," PM Modi said.