3 min readHyderabadMay 10, 2026 09:18 PM IST
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday asked the nation to prepare for “the war that is raging in India’s neighbourhood” by cutting dependence on petrol and diesel.
Addressing a public meeting in Hyderabad, the PM said citizens should use public transport as much as possible to reduce dependence on petroleum products amid the crisis caused by the conflict in West Asia.
“Use metros wherever metros are available. Use car pooling 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,” the PM said.
The Prime Minister also asked people to “put off their foreign travels for one year”, and said, “Do not buy gold for one year during festivities.”
He 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.
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.
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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 on 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.
Telangana should 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.
