Striding the Path towards a New India – The imperatives of Modi again

Text of Shri Ram Madhav’s address on “Striding a path towards a New India – The imperatives of Modi again” on March 03, 2019 organised by Forum for free thinkers, Hyderabad Chapter

Bharatiya Janta Party Telangana state president Dr Laxman, City President Shri Ramchandra Rao Garu, all the party leaders on the dais, eminent intellectuals and dear friends,

We are just less than a couple of months away from the next election. We came before the citizens of this country five years ago, at that time we had Prime Minister Modi as our Prime Ministerial candidate. He was then the Chief Minister of Gujarat. We had a strong party organization. And of course, in that election, we had the ten years of failures of UPA government to talk about and seek the support of the people for a different government led by PM Modi. And people blessed us and Modi Ji became the PM of our country five years ago.

Five years later, when we came back before the people of this country, we came back with the strong leadership of Modi Ji again. We came back with a greater network of party organization but more importantly, we came back with a report card of five years of Modi Ji’s governance. We are seeking the support of the people of this country this time, looking at that report card. Probably we are the only party in the country, in the history of this country who went back to the people with their report card. ‘You see this is what we have done. This is what we have promised and this is how much we have travelled. Look at it and support us.

Look at our adversaries. They don’t have anything to show. No report card, no agendas. Today they want to defeat our government so they are creating a big alliance, or are at least trying to create a non-starter called grand alliance called Mahagathbandan. It isn’t happening. I live in Delhi. Both our opposition parties in Delhi, the AAP and Congress independently say that they are not going to have an alliance. But when Mamata Didi calls in Kolkata, both of them reach. In Kolkata- they are an alliance, and in Delhi- they fight.

This is the plight of our opposition parties today. And even if they want to come together, they are not coming together on any agenda. Not with any vision but only with the singular objective of defeating Modi Ji. Hate Modi is the only thing that is the glue for all these parties. That is the reason why when I stand before you today I’m strongly insisting before you that since the opposition says our singular agenda is Modi, we are also saying our singular agenda will be Modi.

Let us discuss. You say you don’t want Modi, that’s your agenda, we say we want Modi, and that’s our agenda.

First question- If not Modi then who? There are half a dozen people on the other side. Our Party president Amit Shah jokes on Monday Mamta didi, Tuesday Kejriwal Ji, Wednesday Sharad Pawar Ji, Thursday if allowed then, KCR Ji will also come, Sunday is a holiday. But we have been asking in the past constantly, if not Modi Ji then who?

Look at Modi Ji as a man, as a person. Forget that he is a great leader. Nothing personal in his life. He doesn’t even have a home of his own even after being the Prime Minister of this country for five years. On the other side, even the son in law of the family has cases running for so long on his belongings. ED is finding new cases every day, one day in Dubai, the next day in Abu Dhabi. A man who has 130 crore people as his family, a man for whom the entire nation is his family vs. a family which is the entire nation for the opposition.

See the condition of Congress, a party with 130 years of history. They claim so however that Congress and this Congress have very little in similar. They claim on this entire history and all the great leaders, right from Lok Manya Tilak, to Patel, to Subhash Chandra Bose, reduced to one family today. From that one family, they have the president, the General Secretary. Look at Modi Ji as a person, not a single allegation of corruption against him.

It is not enough to be non-corrupt. Everybody is non-corrupt as long as there is no chance to be corrupt. You have to be incorruptible. You have a man in Modi who is incorruptible. There is no force on earth which can corrupt Modi Ji.

He is made of that kind of stuff. Dignity, Integrity personified. Selflessness personified. Dedication to a hundred and thirty crore Indians personified. That is Modi as a person. Show me one person in the opposition who is one-hundredth of this.

Modi, as a leader, one who leads from the front. A leader who need not run from one constituency to another constituency. I was in Bengaluru last week, two weeks ago. There was another meeting like this. Some group of people stood up from one side and said Sir since we have lost Mr. Ananth Kumar, our MP we want Modi Ji to contest from South Bengaluru.

We said, whoever contests from here, consider him as Modi. Then another group stood up saying, not South Bengaluru sir that is anyway a safe seat, we want him North Bengaluru. That is Modi. And then there is the leader of the opposition party, he comes to Hyderabad, is state Congress ready to field him? They say no, we have better candidates.

A leader who has the love and affection of millions of people in this country across the party spectrum. A prime minister who has led this country to greater heights, newer heights. Which Prime Minister has made Indians living all over the world proud in the last 50 years? He led the country from the front. People talk about surgical strikes. When surgical strikes were happening Prime Minister was awake through the night, real-time monitoring it, hands on leader. A leader who doesn’t take a break works 24*7 vs. leaders who need two months holiday and when people ask, the reply comes he has gone for meditation. A leader absent for two months, vs a leader who has no personal time at all, but a vision for the nation.

We had many leaders but more readers, they will simply read out what is given to them. But here is the man who has a vision. When you look at his schedule on a given day, he would have addressed an official program of the government in the morning, afternoon he would have travelled to a South Indian state like Karnataka, Tamil Nadu to do a party rally, later in the afternoon he would have gone to some north Indian state where party is not strong, to address the Karyakartas. Not like opposition leaders who take a clip and keep playing it to their workers repeatedly.

A man with a vision. Who do you want for this country? A leader like Modi with a vision with dedication, with a quality to lead from the front or the kind of leaders who want to come together only in times of need. Friends, we have given, in the last five years, a stable government to this country. Because it was a stable government we could give you a totally clean government, non-corrupt government in the last five years. Not only just a non-corrupt government. We have fought relentlessly against the corrupt in this country. When we say corrupt we are reminded of Vijay Mallya and Lalu Prasad Yadav. We have read about their corruption. One is in Ranchi the other will be brought from London. They all are running pillar to post, London to Hong Kong; Hong Kong to London. India has only one place, Ranchi Jail or Tihar Jail and in time we will get them.

 But remember that corruption is not just about individuals. Of course individuals, we have to catch them. But the corruption within the system, the systemic corruption.  Prime Minister spoke of this a speech day before yesterday, ‘in this country out of around 90 lakh crore rupees disbursed by the Government in the form of benefits to poor people, 20%-30% used to be lost’. People who never existed, never born or had died long back, were being sent money, in a very systematic manner from the government.

When Rajiv Gandhi was Prime Minister he once said I send hundred rupees from Delhi, by the time it reaches the beneficiary in Rangareddy district, only fifteen are left. Nobody asked him, but where were the 85 rupees going? We only realized that the money was being lost. But going where? It wasn’t going anywhere but in the pockets of politicians.

When we introduced JAM trinity, Jan Dhan, AADHAR and Mobile trinity, first the beneficiary got a bank account, gave everyone good internet facility, 1 million Km length of fiber optics network is completed up to 40% – 45%. The rest will be completed. AADHAR gave individual data to the Government of India. Now the entire sum of Rupees 100 goes to the beneficiary. We ended the systemic corruption. That’s why they are going against AADHAR to Supreme Court. Do they go to a court against Driving License? They will never go. AADHAR is like a basic identity card. You know Kapil Sibal, the great Congress leader was one of those who went all the way to the Supreme Court against Aadhaar card being made mandatory. Because their business was being shut down. The source of income was being bundled up.

We have ended systemic corruption in this country. A corruption free system today. A country when the whole world is struggling with its economy, here is a country which is registering a minimum of seven point two per cent growth rate at a minimum. And we are hopeful that in the next couple of years by 2022 our economy will become stronger.

Today we are at three trillion dollar economy. We will become a five trillion dollars economy in another three-four years. That is Modi Ji’s effort, that this country should become a five trillion dollar economy by 2022 and 10 trillion dollar economy by 2030. We want the economy to be strong. I said Modi Ji is a visionary. Because he is a visionary, he understood that for India’s economy to be strong its basics must be right. You cannot have a strong economy with bad basics, wrong fundamentals. If your system is rampant with corruption and 30 per cent economy is black economy, parallel economy, you can’t make your economy a world-class economy.

We clamped down on the black economy. Demonetization was a bold decision. It was an unpopular decision. But only a visionary leader could take such a hard decision, who else could have said to his people to bear inconvenience for 50 days for the country. Only Modi Ji had the courage to say this to the people, to set the basics of the economy right. Today we have eliminated the black money from the system. Black money has a habit of getting regenerated. We have to stop that. We are trying our best to plug those loopholes. But essentially through demonetization, we have curbed the menace of black money from this country.

People say that nothing happened through this. People put all their money in the bank. Indians are very intelligent people who put the money in the bank and thought we defeated Modi Ji. But Modi Ji is a little smarter than us. All the records of our money is with Banks now.

Now we can’t have a parallel economy. Because whatever you have is in the bank accounts. The situation in this country 5 years ago was such that out of a total population of 130 crore people only 2-2.5 crore people filed their returns. And they were 80% – 90% of government employees. They had to file their returns. But remaining did not file any returns. The actual taxpayer base wasn’t more than a million people.

Can you imagine a country with 130 million people, with a tax payer base of only  a million people. All of you can say that, Sir it would have better if there wasn’t any tax for them too. You might feel that taxless life is the happiest life, but all citizens have to contribute to the nation.

Today, after demonetization more than 6 crore people are taxpayers. And they are proud of contributing to Modi Ji’s development visions. They are paying tax happily. Today the country’s economy is strong because of a visionary decision. They used to take money from the banks and never repaid, all the easier in cooperative banks. These co-operative banks were operated by political leaders for the same reason. But after the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code, all fake companies have government control over them. Our economy is on a very strong footing today.

Today India is the world’s fifth or sixth largest economy. We were in ninth position five years ago. In just five years’ time we have climbed up by three notches. And we are hoping to become the third largest economy by 2025. Moody’s rating, as a stable economy rating they gave to India BAA2. Ease of doing business is good in India.

Friends, in 5 years we have strengthened India’s internal and external security because of that vision. 5 years of riot free India you have seen. Only one riot in UP before the state elections under the leadership of Akhilesh Yadav. Why, because they wanted votes in the elections. For 5 years this country was terrorism-free, riot-free country. Every year there used to be terrorist blasts, sometimes in the railway, sometimes in the bus, sometimes on Holi, sometimes on Diwali. Our festivals were not safe, our roads were not safe, and our public places were not safe.

From Pakistan, they used to come and spread terror. If they die they are the ones who are indoctrinated and are told that incentives are waiting for them up there. We send them up there. This time if they come again, we will decide how far we will go to neutralize them.

We have a new doctrine for security today. The new doctrine is that we are no longer going to be sitting ducks. Earlier, a terrorist used to come, spread terror and we would go to UN. We will go to UN when we have to, but before we have to do that we have a totally new doctrine. Our Counter-terrorism doctrine has undergone a change, ‘For one tooth, the entire jaw’. If you kill 40, we will kill 400.

After the incident in Uri, we have been able to neutralize the launch pads. For those of you who are unfamiliar with the topography of Kashmir, please understand, there is a LoC and on the other side of it in the Pakistan Occupied Kashmir (POK) there are some bases where the terrorists get together and on getting a chance cross over the LOC. These are called launching pads, and are within less than 5kms of the LOC.

Last time when we did a surgical strike after the attacks in Uri, we had destroyed these launching pads. The terrorists who were putting in there were neutralized. These a days, we are often asked on the Television that even though you conducted surgical strikes after Uri, terrorism is still prevalent. They have hit you again in Pulwama. We agree to it and also understand that terrorism cannot end in a day’s time.

You have to continue to wage a battle against it. But remember, post Uri, we neutralized their launchpads, whereas after Pulwama we went till their training camps to neutralize.  We did not stop at 5km this time, but went 50 kms inside. Someone might ask if the terror will end now. Who am I to guarantee it, but if they repeat it then we will decide to what extend should me move in now.

We have a different doctrine. We have gone to the international community also. Today we have successfully isolated Pakistan. No one asks about Pakistan today. Even their friends are admonishing them for picking a fight with India. India and Pakistan should maintain restraint. No one is supporting them over us.

We were invited to the organization of Islamic Countries this time. 50 years ago we were called, and our foreign minister had gone to Morocco for this. Then Pakistan said they will boycott if India comes. The Indian foreign minister had to lower his head and come back. But what is the situation today?

Pakistan was threatening that if Sushma Swaraj comes we won’t come. And they all said, Pakistan you stay there. Sushma Swaraj’s message is more important for us. India’s stature has gone up in the world.

Pakistan is saying that they will drag India to International institutions on the issue of ‘environmental terrorism’. When India bombed two trees were burnt. India said we are ready to argue on this under Paris convention. We will do this.

Today we have forced Pakistan to seriously introspect. Which we could not do in last 50 years. First time because we have a determined leadership and because we have a doctrinal shift. Today Pakistan is compelled to introspect. Today, when we have given the dossier to Pakistan, they are reading it carefully and working on it seriously. They are scared and they must be.

Finally, in 5 years we have enhanced the dignity of our country and of our people. Today, an average Indian leads a dignified life. This was Modi Ji’s vision. Gandhi Ji used to say that the yardstick for India’s greatness is not the number of leaders the country created. The yardstick for India’s greatness is the living condition of the last man on the street. The lifestyle of the last man, on the street. That will be the parameter of the greatness of the country. Modiji internalized that message and for last five years, day and night struggled to better the lives of the last man and woman on the street.

Provided them with Gas for cooking, built toilets, it is not just a cleaning campaign. We could have simply granted more funds to municipalities. But we said no, this is directly linked to the self-respect of our people especially women. In this country, the majority of atrocities against women, used to happen because of the lack of facilities in villages, when they have to go out in the dark. That’s when they are subject to atrocities and violence. Not only that, they also end up suffering from many many diseases.

When a man gets a disease, it is only he who suffers but, when a woman gets a disease then the whole family gets sick. A woman’s health, a woman’s security and a woman’s literacy has to be taken care of. In rural India, 60% of girl child used to drop out of schools at grade 6. Boys study till class X. Then they realize they know Archimedes, Pythagoras and Einstein, but don’t know what do if the electricity goes away in the house. They think this is not helping me so they leave and do other jobs. But why does a girl leave? Because there were no toilets in the school. This is what is called dignity.

We made every citizen a part of the economy of this country. 5 years ago 30 crore people of this country didn’t even have a bank account which means that they were not a part of the economy of this country. We opened `their bank accounts and made them an integral part of the economy. If you go to any hotel, and you eat a dosa, you pull out your visa card and pay. Today, even a Rickshaw-walla will present his Rupay card and pay. They also have this dignity of life.

The road construction in our times is super-fast. Rural roads are being built on an average of 127 kilometers. We have drastically improved the basic infrastructure. No one thought 250 airports would go functional today. UDAAN scheme means Ude Desh ka Aam Naagrik. The common man should also fly. We improved the living standard.

In Telangana, there are no families who do not have a relative abroad. Last week in the US I met a Telugu guy who told me that their pride has increased in the US because they have become number one in terms of numbers of the diaspora. Today all Indians feel pride in saying that they are Indians. If we sit in Taxis abroad, the drivers ask where we are from. When we say India then they say oh Modi! India’s pride, Indian’s pride has been enhanced.

Friends, in 5 years we have solidified India’s pride. United India. Prosperous India. India’s economy is on a very strong footing. Its security has been enhanced. India is now a secure nation both internally and externally. More importantly, India’s dignity and honor have been enhanced. This is the report card of our government. And we want this work to continue. And by 2022, Modi Ji has a vision of creating a New India.

What is a New India ? It is the India where there is no homelessness, every person, every family will have a roof on their head. 75 years after Independence, 5 crore families in the country do not have a house that is, they do not have a dwelling of their own, today. We have decided that by 2022 we will build five crore building units. Every family will have a house of their own. We have already completed one crore house dwellings. We have handed them over to the poor people. We will build 4 crores more.

World class helath is to be provided to every person. Health care available in private hospitals shall be provided to them, that’s why we have given them 5 lakh rupees health insurance. So that best medical facility goes to tier 2 & 3 cities. Last man should get all of this.

We want every person to have a home of their own, a healthy life, an educated life and enough employment opportunities. Today, the opposition lies about the increasing unemployment in the country. Yes, unemployment is increasing but only in the Congress party. It will increase even further. But for the public and the youth, numerous opportunities have been provided, through schemes like MUDRA yojana, and many others. The government today says, that you take the money from us and run your business with minimum role of the government. And, Modi Ji believes in the public more than the bureaucracy, thus he said, that if the youth of this country needs loan, I will give upto 15 lakh rupees without any counter guarantee.

No bank would give you such a loan. Modi Ji said the citizen itself is the guarantee. Today the job seekers have become self-employed, they are becoming job providers. Millions of jobs are being created in the formal sector, informal sector. We have created a self-respecting dignified India. We want to take this work forward. And by 2022 we want to build a new India of 2022, we want to build a new India.

2022 is not Modiji’s grandfather’s birth centenary year. 2022 years is when India turns 75 as an independent nation, our platinum jubilee. When India is turning 75, is it too much to expect that we should not have hunger in this country, is it too much to expect that we should not have joblessness in this country? Is it too much to expect that we should not have homelessness in this country?

See the other countries who started with us, Japan, in 1945 they were attacked by the atom bomb, from then they started a new life. Today, they are the world’s 3rd largest economy. Israel got its independence 6-7 months after us. Look at where they are now. We can do that. But we need Modiji for that.

Under his leadership,  by 2022 we will have a new India. We have stepped on the path of building that New India. The opposition makes fun of us that first win the elections in 2019. We say we have no doubts about 2019 because we have Modi Ji. Exactly like the Bollywood dialogue, ‘mere pass maa hai’, we say ‘mere pass Modi hai’.

Under Amit Shah Ji’s leadership, we have a strong organization and in opposition, we have Rahul Gandhi Ji. This gives us confidence that we will win comfortably. We will win only to build a new India, not for any personal or party interest but for building a new India with no homelessness, hunger, illiteracy, and sickness. This is the vision with which the Prime Minister is working. We accept the challenge of the opposition. They say Remove Modi, we will say Return Modi Ji again as PM.

I will end by saying for a New India, Phir ek baar, Modi Sarkaar.

(Video of the speech can be access from here)