Navin Upadhyay
A combative and aggressive Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday hailed the one-year of his government as a “corruption free” tenure during which he has been able to put the coutnry back on the track development and heralded “acche din” ( good days) for the common man.
Marking the first anniversary of the NDA government, Modi addressed a huge public rally at Mathura, 160 km from Delhi, and highlighted several achievements of his government , but avoided any mention of the controversial land acquisition bill that has been stalled by the Opposition in the upper house of parliament .
While Modi listed the report card of his government saying he worked round-the- clock without taking any vacation, he devoted a major part of his speech in attacking the previous Congress-led UPA government for “ looting” the country.
Invoking his famous “acche din” slogan, Modi said, “Some people are troubled these days, for ‘achche din’ has come to all people but ‘bure din’ ( bad days) has come for them. I did not give guarantee of ‘achche din’ for those who looted the nation for years. We will run the country in a way that there will be more ‘bure din’ for them and their troubles will increase. Your money can’t be looted by anyone,” Modi said , addressing the rally at the birth place of Deen Dayal Upadhyaya, BJP’s ideological fountainhead.
With the Congress holding countrywide press conferences to attack Modi government’s performance in one year, the Prime Minister used the occasion to show the mirror to the party that has ruled India for most of the 66 years since Independence.
Modi said if people of the country had not exercised their wisdom and not removed the Congress government , the country would have “sunk deeper.”
In an obvious reference to how Congress President Sonia Gandhi allegedly ruled by proxy when Manmohan Singh was the Prime Minister for ten years between 2005 and 2015, Modi said in the past the government was run by remote control and every day a scam or corruption case was exposed. “Have you heard about any scams, nepotism, or any remote control in the last year?” he asked to loud applause.
Recalling that former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi had famously said that only 15 paisa of one rupee sanctioned in Delhi reach the intended beneficiaries in villages, Modi said that the NDA government has made arrangements that 100 paisa of the money reach intended beneficiaries and are not guzzled by tauts.
“We have succeeded in bringing to an end the business of loot, black-marketing etc.,” he said as he rejected charges leveled by his detractors that that his government was pro-corporate and anti-poor.
Blaming the previous governments for the plight of farmers, he listed a number of initiatives of his government to provide help to the farming community.
The Prime Minister, who had frequently taken barbs at Congress President Sonia Gandhi’s son in-law Robert Vadra also asked the audience, “Have you heard about the news of any son-in-law of any neta, any news of any leader’s son?”
Modi touched on the Coal scam, Commonwealth Games scam, Telecom scam etc., and alleged that while the UPA government had given coal mines at throwaway prices, his government earned Rs 3 lakh crore by auctioning just 29 out of 200 coal mines.
He also talked a great deal about the insurance scheme for the poor and pension scheme for the retired government employees and said these measures will provide them security. Under the insurance scheme any one can get coverage of Rs.200, 000 ($3,000) in case of death or injury in accidents by paying just Rs.12 per annum.
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