Was addressing the BJP parliamentary party meeting
New Delhi, December 20
Good health associated with millets and sports took centrestage in Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s address at the BJP parliamentary party meeting here on Tuesday as he asked MPs to work to promote them.
Making millets, grown by most small farmers in the country, popular amounts to serving the country, Modi told BJP MPs, according to Union minister Pralhad Joshi who briefed reporters.
The prime minister noted that the UN had declared 2023 as the International Year of Millets on his government’s request as he called for making the bouquet of grains high on nutrition a popular choice of food for people.
With tens of thousands of foreign delegates expected to attend a large number of meetings associated with the G-20, now being chaired by India, Modi said millets would be on the menu and said these could be used in anganwadis, schools, homes and government meetings as well.
MPs could use millet items in meetings they hosted, he added.
As over 85 per cent of Indian farmers falling in the category of small farmers grow millets in large numbers, a rise in the consumption of these grains would help them financially, he noted.
Incidentally, the government is hosting a lunch for all MPs on Tuesday in which millets are on the menu.
The prime minister also asked MPs to promote sports meets with special focus on Indian games like kabaddi.
Hosting sports meets has been a BJP initiative in the last few years.