Prime Minister Narendra Modi asked the country’s youth to have the courage to say no to drugs as he addressed the nation on ‘Mann Ki Baat’ radio programme on Sunday.
Defining drug abuse in three Ds- darkness, destruction and devastation, PM underlined the need to fight the habit.
In his third ‘Mann Ki Baat’ programme on radio, he said the menace is a “national pain” but instead of the youth mired in the problem, drugs should be shunned.
The Prime Minister said a thinking process should begin to ensure that the country is rid of this problem and added that he will try to involve celebrities from the cine world, sports and other fields to campaign for a “drug-free India”.
“For long, I have been having concern about the young generation…That some son has got caught in such a quagmire where everything is devastated. Drugs are such a devastation,” Modi said in his broadcast to the nation.
At the same time, he said, “drug addiction is bad, not the child.”
Describing it as a psycho-socio-medical problem, he said the family, friends, society, government and the law will have to work together to fight it as working in pieces will not help. He said he had asked his officials to set up a toll free helpline soon to assist those seeking answers to the problem. The Prime Minister also suggested launching a special drive on social media against the menace.
“You may be thinking that taking drugs is a ‘style statement’ or ‘cool’. It is neither. It is just leads you to devastation.” He also asked the youth taking drugs whether they know that the money they spend on drugs might be going to fund terrorism.
“Have you thought that the money you spend on drugs might be going to terrorists who buy bullets to kill our soldiers? You also love mother India. How can you help terrorists,” he told the youth.
