Bracketing Prime Minister Narendra Modi with Sardar Patel and B.R. Ambedkar, BJP president Amit Shah said here on Sunday that Mr. Modi had started India’s economic integration after Patel and Ambedkar achieved the country’s territorial and social unification, respectively.
Spirit of India
Lavishing praise on Mr. Modi on his 67th birthday, Mr. Shah said in a blog post that the PM’s life in many ways was a “personification of the spirit of India”, and said his sensitivity towards the aspirations of the poor had led to “historic poverty alleviation initiatives”.
Under the Modi government, Mr. Shah said, honest taxpayers, a majority of whom belonged to the middle class, felt they were valued following crackdowns against black money and corruption through various measures, including demonetisation and the benami law.
Opposition parties had sharpened their criticism of the government’s claims about demonetisation after the RBI said over 99% old notes were deposited in banks but the BJP insisted it had increased transparency and expanded the formal economy.
“India remembers Sardar Patel for the territorial integration of our nation and we recall the role of Babasaheb Ambedkar in our social integration. Through initiatives starting from the Jan Dhan Yojana to the GST, Narendra Bhai has set the ball rolling for the economic integration of India,” Mr. Shah.
Targeting the Prime Minister’s critics, he said Mr. Modi had ruffled several feathers by his action against the corrupt and status quo — “after all, years of privilege of a select few are now over and the poor are now getting their due.”
Recalling his decades-long association with Mr. Modi, he said the Prime Minister had never celebrated his birthday. Mr. Shah added that service or ‘seva’ was the best way to celebrate the birthday of ‘pradhan sevak’ Modi.
Mr. Modi’s heart, he said, “beats for the poor, downtrodden, marginalised and the farmers of India.”
Mr. Shah said the PM’s deep concern for their welfare had motivated him to immerse himself in nation-building from a very young age. “India First is a belief that Narendra Bhai has lived at every point of his life,” he wrote.
People saw him as a compassionate leader, he said.
“They see him as their own, a person working round the clock for their and the nation’s welfare, without any self-interest. His popularity has transcended all boundaries,” the BJP chief said. He added that he first met him as a young BJP worker and neither of them was drawn to power as the saffron party then was far from the force it later became. What mattered, he said, was that they devoted every moment of their time for India’s welfare.
'Tribes tasting fruits of freedom'
Mr. Shah said the party was trying to transform “Swaraj into Suraj” (self-rule to good governance) because of which tribal people were now tasting the fruits of freedom.
The country was indebted to tribal people and Dalits for the sacrifices they made during the freedom struggle.
“I am fortunate to visit the birth place of Bhagwan Birsa Munda (a tribal freedom fighter),” Mr. Shah said at Ulihatu in Khunti district of Jharkhand, after laying the foundation stone for projects in 19 villages.
