4 min readHyderabadUpdated: May 11, 2026 08:38 AM IST
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday appealed for collective participation of the people to help the country face global disruptions and challenges, urging measures to reduce the consumption of petroleum products and conserve foreign exchange reserves.
Addressing a public meeting in Hyderabad, the PM asked citizens to use public transport as much as possible, increase the use of electric vehicles (EVs), revive Covid-era measures such as work-from-home arrangements and virtual meetings, avoid non-essential foreign travel and gold purchases for a year, and prioritise local goods, among other measures.
“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.
During a global crisis, such as the one caused by the conflict in West Asia, he said, “We have to take resolutions, keeping the country above all else.”
Referring to measures adopted during the Covid-19 pandemic period, Modi said, “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 stressed the need to conserve foreign exchange, and said, “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…” He urged people to refrain from the practice of buying gold during festivals for a year.
The PM also asked people to reduce the use of cooking oil. “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 said.
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Pushing the theme of self-reliance, the PM said, “Make a list of things which you use daily and find out what is foreign.” This does not mean that people should throw away foreign goods, he said, adding, “But efforts should be on to build self-reliance as soon as possible.” He said that he had raised the “vocal for local” slogan during the Covid-19 pandemic, too.
He also called for reducing the use of chemical fertilisers and promoting natural farming to make the country more self-reliant.
On elections
Regarding the recent Assembly election results in several states, he said, “Yesterday I was in Bengal. There, for the first time, a BJP CM has taken oath… Spurred by that victory, even workers in Telangana are in high spirits. In Assam, the BJP has achieved a hat-trick victory, and in Puducherry, the NDA has come to power once again. People of the country are putting their faith in the good governance of the BJP.”
He said the BJP’s win in Bengal was being celebrated across the country and discussed across the world. “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,” Modi said.
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Telangana will also aspire to bring the BJP to power, he said. “People are tired of Congress-BRS politics. People of Telangana want change.”
Coming down heavily on the Congress, Modi said that the party has become more Left than the Leftists and more Muslim than the Muslim League. “Congress is being called MMC — Muslim League, Maoist Congress,” Modi quipped. Now that Maoism has come to an end in the country, the Congress is trying to save the Naxalites, he alleged. “BJP government should come to power in Telangana for a developed Telangana to become reality,” Modi said.
