Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday said India’s neo middle class and middle class will drive the growth of aspirational India even as he termed “liberation from Congress misrule" the top achievement of the BJP-led NDA dispensation’s 12 years.
Modi was speaking after NDA partners — 72 leaders including all 22 chief ministers of the BJP- and NDA-ruled states — passed a resolution hailing PM Modi for surpassing Jawaharlal Nehru as India’s longest serving elected prime minister.
Dedicating the feat to the people and the NDA constituents, the PM said, “A major success of NDA’s 12 years is that the country has been liberated from the grip of the Congress which had pushed us into the abyss of helplessness and inferiority. The country was made to feel that slow development is a norm and fast development is not even possible. Slow growth was smartly called the Hindu rate of growth whereas it should have actually been called the Congress rate of growth."
The PM said the Congress attributed India’s slow growth to the majority Hindu people while itself lacking in governance, policy, intent and decision-making powers.
Contrasting the Congress rule with that of the NDA under late PM Atal Behari Vajpayee and then himself starting 2014, the PM said, “Today’s government is not hesitant to take transformative decisions in national interest." He mentioned abrogation of Article 370, strikes on Pakistan-sponsored terrorists, eradication of Naxalism and several reforms to ease the lives of middle class as examples of bold policy shift under the NDA regime he is leading.
The PM said, “In the coming days, reforms will gather more intensity."
He said time had come to eschew political competition for competition along the indicators of governance and development.
“Competition for development must become a national culture," said the PM, exuding faith in Indian people and thanking them for responding generously every time he called upon them for positive change, be it for the Clean India campaign, unity during Covid 19, enhanced use of digital transactions and other such campaigns.
The PM added that India’s 12-year achievements under the NDA were remarkable because these have come despite global chaos and uncertainty.
Modi credited the people of India for this, saying “it is the wisdom of Indians who understood the importance of political stability at the national level; this stability is helping today amid growing global uncertainties".
The PM added that in the coming decade India will emerge a world leader in green growth, futuristic technologies and innovation.
