Work from home, shun foreign trips: PM Modi’s self-reliance call amid West Asia oil crisis
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Hyderabad: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday urged Indians to embrace work-from-home, public transport, carpooling, and cutbacks on foreign travel and gold buys to counter global disruptions from the West Asia conflict, conserving petroleum and foreign exchange.
“Use metros wherever metros are available. Use carpooling to go to places, and use the Railways if you have to transport goods. All of this will reduce dependency on petrol and diesel, and thereby cut the dependence on foreign currency,” he said.
At a Hyderabad rally, Modi invoked Covid-era habits: “We have developed work from home, virtual meetings, video conferencing and many other methods during corona. We got habituated to it. The need of the hour is to resume those methods.”
He targeted middle-class trends: “The growing culture of weddings abroad, travelling abroad, and vacationing abroad is becoming prevalent among the middle class. We must decide that during this time of crisis, we should postpone travelling abroad for at least a year.” Pushing ‘vocal for local’, he said: “I have been saying, reduce the use of cooking oil by 10%. This will not only help the nation during these times but also improve the health of your family.”
Modi tied it to national resolve: “We have to take resolutions, keeping the country above all else.”
He hailed BJP’s poll wins: a first-ever CM oath in Bengal, Assam hat-trick, Puducherry NDA return. “The TMC had learnt the worst practices of dynasty politics from the Congress. From the Left, it had learnt all its bad practices. Based on this, the TMC developed a dangerous model. And this model was defeated by the people of Bengal,” he said, predicting Telangana’s shift from “tired Congress-BRS politics.”
Slamming Congress as more Left than Leftists, more Muslim League than Muslims, “Congress is being called MMC — Muslim League, Maoist Congress,” Modi accused it of shielding Naxalites. “BJP government should come to power in Telangana for a developed Telangana to become reality.”