Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday alleged that the Opposition is creating “North-South” divide and asked the Congress to stop divisive politics. He was apparently reacting to the protest by the Karnataka government against the alleged “stepmotherly” treatment of the Centre. He made these remarks while replying to a debate in the Rajya Sabha on the motion to thank President Droupadi Murmu for her address to the joint session of Parliament.
Mr. Modi said that during his term as Gujarat Chief Minister, the UPA government tried to create many obstacles, but his government’s policies favoured competitive and cooperative federalism. He said “States’ development for country’s development” is the mantra for the NDA government. Sharing his “agony” over certain recent statements of the Opposition, the Prime Minister said the language of breaking the country was being spoken by them. “Stop these new narratives,” he said, and added: “An entire State is speaking this language, nothing can be worse for the country than this... And it is very painful that such language is emerging from a national party, it is very sad.”
On complaints that taxes are not disbursed to the States in a proper manner, Mr. Modi said ‘our tax, our money’ should not be the language to demand States’ rights. “This nation is not just a piece of land for us. It is like the human body,” he said and added that if there is pain anywhere in this country, it should be felt by everyone. The Prime Minister said that during the COVID-19 pandemic, he chaired 20 meetings with the Chief Ministers of all States and credited the entire machinery for tackling the challenge head-on. “The design of our programme takes the States along and is for taking the nations forward collectively,” he said. Attacking the erstwhile governments of the Congress, Mr. Modi said the country had crossed over from ‘fragile five’ and ‘policy paralysis’ in the last 10 years and now it is among the top five economies in the world. “That is how the world talks about us today”, he said.
“Modi’s guarantee”
Countering Opposition leader Mallikarjun Kharge’s arguments that the Centre is denying jobs to SC, ST and OBC youth by not filling vacancies in the government and PSUs, Mr. Modi said his government took steps to ensure education and employment for the marginalised people. He said abrogation of Article 370 ensured that these communities get the same rights as the rest of the country in Jammu and Kashmir. “Similarly, the Forest Rights Act, the Prevention of Atrocities Act, and domicile rights for Balmiki community in the State were also implemented only after the abrogation,” he said. “Sabka Saath Sabka Vikas is not just a slogan, it is Modi’s guarantee,” the Prime Minister said, adding that the number of PSUs in the country increased from 234 in 2014 to 254 today, and most of them were giving record returns drawing the attention of investors.
Mr. Modi expressed confidence that the NDA would retain power with 400 seats and listed the agenda for the next five years. “Modi 3.0 will leave no stone unturned to strengthen the foundations of developed India”, he said. The Prime Minister said that strides in the medical infrastructure would continue in the next five years and medical treatment would be more affordable; every house would have piped water, saturation of building houses under the PM Awas Yojana would be achieved, electricity bills would become zero for crores of houses due to solar power, piped cooking gas in the entire country, start-ups would increase, patent filing would break new records.
