New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi sounded the poll bugle from the Lok Sabha on Monday, February 5, laying down a report card of his performance over the last 10 years, taking on criticisms on high unemployment, rising inequality, and price rise during his tenures, opposition’s efforts to unite, while also expressing his confidence over securing a third successive term at the Centre with over 400 seats.
His reply to the ‘Motion of Thanks to the President’s Address’ lasted for more than two hours, stitching an all-round political narrative for the BJP in the run-up to the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.
‘Need for Speed’
He highlighted a much higher momentum of welfare and growth than during the Congress-led tenures previously, in an attempt to directly communicate with critics and skeptics who see many of Modi’s policy measures as merely continuation from previous regimes. The Prime Minister made it a point to emphasise upon the “speed” with which his government implemented a range of schemes to differentiate himself from the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) governments.
“The world is watching the BJP government’s speed,” he said while listing government data to assert his success. He took a dig at the Congress leader and former Union finance minister P. Chidambaram who in 2014 had taken pride in India attaining the position of 11th largest economy in the world and laid down a vision to make India the third largest in another 30 years. Modi said that his government’s efforts have already elevated India to the fifth largest economy in merely 10 years, as he claimed to make India the third largest economy in his third term. “This is Modi’s Guarantee,” he said while appropriating Congress’s recent electoral slogan ‘Congress ki Guarantee’.
He went on to say that his government has given houses to 80 lakh urban poor and 4 crore rural poor, LPG gas connections to 17 crore households, electrified 40,000 kilometres of railway tracks, brought 25 crore people out of poverty, and added such strides in governance would have taken the Congress anywhere between 60 to 100 years. “I want to tell India’s people, especially the youth, that this is how efficient governments can play a constructive role in the development of a country,” Modi said.
Like most of his previous speeches in the Parliament, he trained guns solely at the Congress, and spared other opposition parties, in what many observers would believe as a tactical attack, given the fact that only the grand old party can match the BJP’s national footprint in India. He hit out at the Congress’s “dynasty politics” – a reference to the Gandhi family’s influence in the party, while justifying the BJP’s decisions to field sons and daughters of senior party leaders in elections.
‘Congress and INDIA Bloc – A band of dynasts and opportunists’
“BJP is not run by a family, like the Congress. Rajnath Singh and Amit Shah’s families do not run the BJP. But Congress has remained trapped under one family. So much so that it failed many of the talented leaders of its own party and other opposition parties,” Modi said, referring to the Lok Sabha loss of its president Mallikarjun Kharge in 2019 and Ghulam Nabi Azad’s exit from the party.
He added that the Congress could not play a constructive opposition role even in the 10 years that it got to sit in the opposition benches. “Congress has become entangled in ‘cancel culture’,” said the Prime Minister, referring to the Congress’s rejection of his welfare slogans, and added that such outright rejection is borne out of a particular mindset because of which India has had to incur great losses.
Leaders of parties in the INDIA alliance in Mumbai on September 1.
“Congress’s royal family thought of itself as rulers and believed Indians to be inferior people…They believed Indians are lazy and foolish,” he said, trying to relay the message that BJP has changed such mentalities of those in power. “I have always believed in the courage and will of common Indians,” said Modi, even as he adorned titles of “an OBC leader”, “Kaamdaar” (industrious and hardworking), and “Rasthravadi (nationalist) at various points of his speech.
He also said that the Congress never acknowledged the great contributions of the non-Congress leaders like the EBC leader and former Bihar chief minister Karpoori Thakur, who his government finally conferred the Bharat Ratna.
He took a jibe at the Congress for the recent setbacks it faced in the INDIA Bloc. “I saw the Congress trying to cobble up a ‘bhanumati ka kunba (a Hindu phrase that denotes a group of people who are inimical to each other but come together for selfish reasons) but is now talking about ekla chalo re (a reference to the Rabindranath Tagore’s song walk alone). But I am also watching that the alignment of the alliance has now broken. If they (opposition parties) can’t trust each other, how will they trust the nation and its people,” Modi asked.
A political road map
More importantly, Modi presented a road map for his third term, while talking about his two tenures. He said while his first term between 2014-19 was spent “filling holes” that the previous government had left, his second term laid the foundation stone for a “New India”, as he “guaranteed” Indians to set the founding stone for a “Viksit Bharat (Developed India)” in his third term.
He said that he launched a set of welfare programmes for the poor like Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao, Swaccha Bharat Abhiyan, Ujjwala Yojana, Digital India, Ayushman Bharat in his first tenure, while his second term was about fulfilling long-awaited promises like abrogation of Article 370, Women’s Reservation Bill, construction of a Ram Temple in Ayodhya and declonialising Indian Criminal laws.
“So many had created a scare about the abrogation of Article 370. But see now, how the move brought so much development in Kashmir, tourism is flourishing and people of Kashmir have accepted the decision wholeheartedly,” Modi said, blaming India’s first prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru for the long-drawn period of misery and conflict that Kashmiri people had to face.
“Lord Ram has now not only returned to his home but has come to a grand temple that will energise India’s august cultural traditions for the next 1,000 years,” Modi said, while immediately claiming that although the National Democratic Alliance is set to secure 400 seats in the Lok Sabha, the BJP alone will get 370 seats. “I am watching the country’s mood,” Modi said, as he gave a cue to the BJP MPs to chant “Abki Baar, 400 paar (This time, over 400 seats)
On unemployment, price rise, and targeting of opposition
Modi devoted the last segment of his speech to tackling the opposition’s criticisms. He listed out his government’s initiatives and schemes which he believed would help generate employment in the near future. He said he has empowered people and curbed corruption through his direct benefit transfer and Jan Dhan bank accounts in which over 30 lakh crores of rupees have already been transferred under different welfare measures over the last 10 years.
He said that India has become the second biggest domestic aviation sector in the world, because of which private carriers have ordered “1000 aircraft”. “Can you imagine how many pilots, ground staff, crew members will be employed because of this,” he said.
“I have full confidence in Indian citizens. I believe if the government gives them resources and creates conditions for them to make a better living, they will show their mettle,” Modi said.
Similarly, he said his government has helped create one crore “lakhpati didis” through self-help groups and hopes to create 3 crore of them in his third tenure. He said that his government has now made 26 weeks of maternity leave for women compulsory, and has encouraged women to become heads of families through various means.
He delineated schemes for all segments of the electorate, which according to him, has empowered them both socially and economically. He spoke about how his government has brought institutional loan schemes for street vendors. He claimed to have made the biggest-ever bulk purchases of wheat, millets, paddy and other grains, while also creating a separate ministry for the welfare of cattle-rearers and fishermen. He also said that over 8 crore youth have benefited from the Mudra scheme and have started their own businesses.
He also said that the PVTG (Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Groups) groups, which are very few in number, are also going to benefit from rapid development schemes only for them. Modi said that he has initiated modern training and loans (Vishwakarma Saathi) to empower skilled workers of India at a global level.
“We have also shown our commitment to develop border villages which were often ignored. They were known as the last villages, but now we have named them as the first villages of India,” he said.
Similarly, he said the tourism sector has seen unprecedented growth because of which job opportunities have opened up. “A record manufacturing and record exports” and “over 44 lakh crore on infrastructure development” during his terms, he claimed, will help job-seekers. He said that his government’s efforts to move towards formalising the economy will not only secure better salaries for people but also social security for them.
“We are moving in a direction to create manpower for industry 4.0,” the prime minister said, in an effort to send a message of a positive future.
His attempt to trash opposition’s criticisms on price rise and unemployment centred around the messaging that his government is looking at long-term prospects of the Indian economy, and the youth need not feel pessimistic.
He defended his government’s success in containing inflation in single digits, even when the world has suffered “two wars” and an unprecedented COVID-19 pandemic. At the same time, he attacked the Congress for failing on the inflation front multiple times in the past. “History is witness to the fact that whenever the Congress comes to power, price rise also comes along with it,” Modi said, adding even famous songs on price rise were written during the Congress tenures.
Similarly, he turned around opposition’s claim that the central investigation agencies are being misused by the Centre to target the opposition, Modi said that the agencies were working against corruption, and boldly defended the action by claiming that it is his commitment to weed out corruption that the opposition leaders are scared of. “The (black) money belongs to the country. And I will ensure that it goes to the hands of people, not anywhere else,” Modi said, linking his welfare schemes with the targeted action against opposition leaders.
“I can understand their pain and anger, which means that teer nishane par laga hai (the arrow has hit the spot),” Modi said.
“During the tenure of Congress, ED confiscated properties of Rs 5,000 crore only. However, during our tenure, the ED has confiscated properties worth Rs 1 lakh crore. You will have to shell out the plundered money,” he continued.
Modi’s political narrative for the BJP centred around his own moralising force. “I looked out for them who were never looked out for. I don’t think in terms of vote banks, like other governments. For me, the nation comes first.”
“But I also understand because of my commitment to the poor and the nation, the naamdaars (entitled) will always abuse kaamdars like me,” Modi said at the end.
