Narendra Modi bats for more humour and satire

Heaping encomiums on his "friend" Ramaswamy, Modi said the actor-journalist had mastered the art of satire and humour and he was adept at communicating through a sentence or a cartoon.

Chennai, Jan 14: Batting for more humour and satire in daily life, Prime Minister Narendra Modi today termed humour as the "best healer" and said the power of a smile or laughter is more powerful than abuse or any other weapon.

Addressing the 47th anniversary of Tamil magazine Thuglaq, founded by the late Cho S Ramaswamy, Modi particularly referred to the noted journalist's ability for satire and humour and called for more of this in daily life.

"I think we need more satire and humour. Humour brings happiness in our lives. Humour is the best healer. The power of a smile or the power of laughter is more than the power of abuse or any other weapon," he said.

"Humour builds bridges instead of breaking them... And this is exactly what we require today. Building bridges, bridges between people, bridges between communities, bridges between societies," the Prime Minister said through video conferencing from New Delhi.

Heaping encomiums on his "friend" Ramaswamy, Modi said the actor-journalist had mastered the art of satire and humour and he was adept at communicating through a sentence or a cartoon. He recalled a particular cartoon Ramaswamy had done of him and said it was "apt" to the current situation.

"This reminds me a cartoon of Cho wherein people are targeting me with their guns and the common people are standing in front of me. Cho asks who is the real target, me or the common people? How apt is the cartoon in today's context," he said without referring to any incident. Modi also did not elaborate.

The Prime Minister has, however, been receiving flak from opposition parties, including Congress and TMC, besides the Left, over his demonetisation move, saying it had affected the common man though it was rolled out with the objectives of addressing black money, fake notes and terror funding issues. The Prime Minister said humour brings out "human creativity".

"We are living in an age where one speech or one event can create multiple memes," he said.

PTI