Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday accused the Opposition parties of forming an “adulterated” ‘ maha milawat ’ (grand alliance) with the sole aim of pointing guns at him.
He believed the people would reject the opposition alliance.
Addressing a BJP election rally in Perumanallur in Tirupur ahead of the Lok Sabha polls, where he steered clear of either strongly attacking the DMK or patronising the AIADMK with which the national party is keen on forging an alliance, he charged that friends in the Opposition were “very funny”, who dubbed the Modi government a failure but found the need to form big alliances to “defeat Modi.” No one knew the agenda of the Opposition “because their guns are only aimed at Modi.”
For most part of his speech, he referred to himself in third person, as has been his trademark while addressing public meetings.
Mr. Modi, who began his speech in Tamil hailing the contribution of freedom fighters such as Tirupur Kumaran and Dheeran Chinnamalai before switching to English, said the people of Tamil Nadu and the entire nation were wise enough to see through the Opposition’s game. “The maha milawat or adulterated alliance is a club of rich people trying to promote their dynasties. They neither understand poverty nor they have a vision to serve the poor,” he charged.
Claiming that the people who thought power was their divine right and they were born to rule were disturbed to see a “working” NDA government, he said their unhappiness had turned into depression and abuse to such an extent that their only answer to any question was “Modi, Modi, Modi…”
Mr. Modi claimed that his government was putting a lock on the corrupt and eliminating middlemen and bogus beneficiaries. Seeking to connect with the locals, he said, “This is exactly how the great Kamaraj (former Chief Minister) wanted a government to be run, where there is zero tolerance towards corruption.”
Mocking at the corruption cases faced by some Congress leaders and their family members, he said, “We used to hear about a family pack in mobile recharge and ice cream. Now, there is a family pack for the bail too.” According to him, what had changed in the country was that people who lorded over the nation, thinking they could never be questioned, now had to give an account of their loot.
He claimed that the opposition was good only at spreading panic, whereas his government had announced measures in the interim budget that were friendly towards the middle class and farmers. The middle class, he said, had already rejected the Congress and would continue to do so.
His government would also set up a Department for Fisheries for the first time, he said.
Social justice
Insisting that the 10% quota for the poor in the general category will not alter the existing reservation system, he said that for the NDA, social justice was about “wholesome justice” and not a “mathematical equation”. In fact, it was an article of faith. It was the Vajpayee government that restored reservation for SCs/STs in job promotions, which was earlier scrapped by the ‘Third Front’ government, he said.
Mr. Modi said that unlike in the past, when the rulers were only brokering deals “from sea to sky” in the defence sector, leading to several scams and thereby impeding the modernisation of the sector, now, the government was working towards self-sufficiency in defence production and keeping the nation safe. The two Defence Corridors, including one in Tamil Nadu, will bring in industry, investment and opportunities for the youth, he said.
The PM concluded his speech by quoting poet-saint Thiruvalluvar, who said the height of the lotus (BJP symbol) depended on the height of the water and called upon the people to think positively about the future.
