Prateek Tanmay
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday framed his address at the BJP-led NDA’s conclave to mark 12 years of his government as a sharp critique of the previous Congress regimes and as a celebration of the NDA as the vanguard of what he saw as India’s rise since 2014.
He thanked the ruling alliance for hailing him on becoming India’s consecutively longest-serving elected Prime Minister, adding that this was not his individual success but that of the NDA and each party in it. This was said in the context of Modi crossing the number of days Jawaharlal Nehru was Prime Minister since the first election in 1952, roughly five years after Nehru had become the PM at Independence.
Here are five takeaways from the PM’s address.
Cong ‘failures’ behind ‘Hindu rate of growth’
“The country has been liberated from the Congress. They made people believe that development would be slow in India. They gave it a name Hindu rate of growth. The failures were of the Congress, but the blame came on Hindus. It should have been called the Congress rate of growth,” Modi said.
The term was a common one used for India’s low GDP growth rates before liberalisation, particularly in the 1950s and 1960s.
Recalling what he saw as his government’s achievements, Modi said this was the difference between the Congress growth rate and the NDA growth rate. “This is the story of a Bharat that has started running at full speed for the first time,” he said.
Celebration of NDA
“I never thought that I would get the opportunity to be the longest serving elected Prime Minister. This is my good fortune. It’s only with God’s grace that this was possible, and for me the people are like God… This has been like a yagna in which you all contributed. I thank all such friends today,” the PM told the NDA meeting.
He thanked the “NDA parivar” for passing a resolution on the occasion. He said it was a collective achievement of the NDA and not his individual accomplishment.
Return of stability
Modi said that it was the maturity of the voters that gave him a chance to serve them for such a long time. “The earlier decades’ instability harmed the country,” he said, adding that people were today witnessing the benefits of a stable government. Modi recalled that he said in 2014 that there was a new hope in the minds of people.
“After the betrayal by the Congress, the people placed their trust on us. And we strengthened the faith of the country. The sun of hope that dawned in 2014 has now become a prakash punj (beam of light) of confidence,” Modi said.
NDA achievements
The PM said 25 crore people had come out of poverty in these years, which showed that the policies of his government were correct. He added that this gave confidence to all poor people that their dreams would come true. He underlined that the government would have to work round the clock to fulfill the aspirations of the people.
Modi recalled that a ray of hope came with the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government, but then the Congress returned, and corruption allegedly became rampant.
“The fortunes of the country turned when the NDA came back to power in 2014… Work that was done in decades started happening in months,” Modi said, highlighting the establishment of airports, metro, defence exports and the like. He said the number of internet users has gone up from 25 crore to 100 crore and added that India was number 1 in the world in digital transactions today.
“We cannot forget the time of Covid. India conquered it. When economies across the world are struggling, our rate of growth is 7.7%,” Modi asserted. “This hasn’t been easy. We have come out of the fragile five and are the fastest growing economy. In the womb of aspirational India, Viksit Bharat is being nurtured.”
Reaching out to middle class
In the backdrop of paper leaks and the Cockroach Janta Party’s campaign over the issue, the PM said the government is working to provide opportunities to the middle class which, he charged, had been a victim of complicated procedures of the previous regime. “But we understood their problems. So, income up to Rs 12 lakh per annum is tax-free today… Good infrastructure has made their lives easier.,” he said.
The PM said GST helped the middle class by bringing down prices. He added that the middle class was speeding up the economy of the country. “For us, the country is bigger than the party,” he said. He recalled the abrogation of Article 370, claiming that peace has “returned” to the North-east. He also added thaOperation Sindoor made the world see India’s ability.
“We have to look forward now. We have to look at 2047. We have to speed up our growth… Today, India’s contribution to global growth is increasing. So, we have to have a global perspective. The world wants solutions from us, and we have to stand up to the expectations… I repeat — yahi samay hai, sahi samay hai (this is the time, this is the right time). We have to be a step ahead of the world,” Modi asserted.
