PM Modi pitches for people's participation in inclusive democracy

New Delhi Making a strong pitch for peoplersquos participation in the journey of development and democracy Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the 9th Jagran Forum of the worldrsquos most read newspaper Dainik Jagran said the first step is to have faith in the people and their strengthsPrime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurates the 9th Jagran Forum as Chairman amp Managing Director of Jagran Prakashan Ltd Mahendra Mohan Gupta and Dainik Jagran CEO and EditorinChief Sanjay Gupta look onL to R Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal Chhattisgarh CM Raman Singh Jharkhand CM Raghubar Das and Uttarakhand CM Harish Rawat with senior Congress leader Jairam Ramesh during an interactionOur definition of democracy canrsquot be restricted to elections and governments alone Democracy is strengthened by jan bhagidari peoplesrsquo participation he said adding that development should be turned into a mass movement to integrate every IndianPM Modi addressing the audienceFlanked by Mahendra Mohan Gupta PM Modi presents the Janhit Jagran Award to social activist Anuradha GuptaThe PM exchanges pleasantries with classical singer Chhannulal MishraThen loktantra democracy becomes lok shakti peoplersquos power he said Like Mahatma Gandhi struggled to achieve freedom similarly we should make development a peoplersquos movement he addedChhattisgarh Chief Minister Raman Singh with Jairam RameshEveryone must think like they are working for Indiarsquos progress he said He termed awareness as the most important need to help the country developForeground Jagran and midday Infomedia Director Shailesh Gupta at the event yesterdayIn a veiled dig at the previous governments he said had peoplersquos participation in the countryrsquos development been made a policy after Independence the pace of development would have been 1000 times fasterDelhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal addresses a sessionNowadays all work is left to the government In Gandhirsquos model everything was done by the people Modi said while referring to the impact of programmes like Swachh Bharat Abhiyan and Give It UP for giving up LPG subsidyPM Modi and Mahendra Mohan Gupta release the book Discourse On DemocracyAs many as 52 lakh people have given up their LPG subsidy which has benefited 46 lakh people he shared The Prime Minister while highlighting the need to protect democracy from the influence of money power said the two threats to democracy are mantantra and moneytantraPM Modi bids goodbye to other dignitaries present at the Jagran ForumJagran CMD Mahendra Mohan Gupta Dainik Jagran CEO and EditorinChief Sanjay Gupta and Jagran and midday Infomedia Director Shailesh Gupta were present at the event Dainik Jagran has done a lot of work for inclusiveness Sanjay Gupta said in his welcome speechHe said inclusive democracy is at the centre of the discussion at the Forum The commitment to make our democracy inclusive is visible at many places in our Constitution In our democratic journey of more than six decades we have almost fulfilled this commitment he saidBut he added that democracy has its limitations too Perhaps due to this inclusiveness a bit of chaos has entered our democracy I am sure that despite these issues nobody here will question inclusivenessMission modeAddressing the event the Prime Minister also spoke about mission mode journalism and the role of the fourth state saying this mission mode should not receive a blow either from the inside or outsidePM Modi linked the disruptions in Parliament with the loss of the poor in the country People only talk about GST and Parliament but there are several other schemes to uplift the poor that are pending in Parliament he saidWhile calling for a push to entrepreneurship he said merely restricting ourselves to private and public sector will limit our development There is a need to focus on personal sectorThe personal sector is a source of great strength he said listing the governmentrsquos initiative lsquoPM Mudra Yojnarsquo which offers loans to small entrepreneurs