New Delhi: Hitting out at earlier governments for bringing in schemes to please vote bank, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday said his government's purpose was miles away from vote bank politics and it was moving ahead with the mantra of progress of the people, by the people and for the people.
Delivering the keynote address at the HT Leadership Summit, the prime minister said the biggest harm caused by the politics of vote banks that earlier governments indulged in was that the scope of imbalanced inequality in the country kept increasing. He asserted that his dispensation had restored the faith of the people in the government.
Recalling the period of the 90s when India had five elections in 10 years, Modi said there was so much instability in the country. "Experts, people writing in newspapers, had predicted that India will have to live like this, everything will go on like this in India. But the citizens of India have once again proved such experts wrong," he said.
Noting that uncertainty and instability are being discussed and seen all around the world with many countries witnessing change of governments in every election, Modi pointed out that at such a time, the people of India have chosen his government for the third time.
"Earlier we used to often hear the phrase 'good economics is bad politics'. People known as experts used to promote it a lot. But earlier governments used to get an excuse to sit idle. In a way, it had become a medium to cover up bad governance, inefficiency," Modi said.
Earlier, the government was run just to win the next election and a vote bank was created to win the polls with schemes made to please that vote bank, he said in a swipe at the past governments led by the Congress.
"The biggest harm caused by this type of politics was that the scope of imbalanced inequality in the country kept increasing. Development boards were installed but were not visible. This imbalanced situation, this model broke the public's trust in the government. Today we have restored that trust," Modi said.
"We have decided the purpose of the government. This purpose is thousands of miles away from vote bank politics. The purpose of our government is a big, vast, wide-spread one. We are moving ahead with the mantra of progress of the people, progress by the people and progress for the people," he asserted. Modi said the purpose of his government is to build a new India, to make the country developed.
"And when we have set out with this huge goal, the people of India have also entrusted us with the capital of their trust. You can imagine that in this age of social media, misinformation, disinformation in that era the citizens of India have faith in us, in our government," he said.
Modi said his government has provided the citizens with a unique combination of employment through investment and dignity through development. "The approach of our government is to spend big for the people and save big for the people," he said and asserted that this century will be India's century.
Modi also released a commemorative postage stamp celebrating 100 years of Hindustan Times and visited an exhibition of HT at the venue. The prime minister said that he saw old newspapers of the days when India got its independence and noted that the freedom struggle as well as moving forward with hopes in the post-independence period has been a phenomenal and amazing journey.
He said that he felt the same excitement to read the news about merger of Kashmir with India like every other citizen in October 1947. However, he added, at that moment, he also realised how indecisiveness had kept Kashmir mired in violence for seven decades. But it is heartening that these days news of record voting in the elections in J&K is published in papers, he added.
The prime minister said he found another newspaper print very special where on one side of it, there was news of Assam being declared a disturbed area while on the other side, there was news of Atal Bihari Vajpayee laying the foundation of the Bharatiya Janata Party. He said it was such a pleasant coincidence that today the BJP is playing a big role in bringing permanent peace in Assam.
Emphasizing the importance of risk-taking, Modi said our ancestors took risks which helped us to promote Indian goods and services in foreign countries and make India a hotspot of commerce and culture. However, he pointed out that this culture of risk-taking was lost in the post-independence period by the previous governments.
Modi said that India has seen development and changes in the last 10 years since his government came to power and gave new energy to the risk-taking culture among the citizens of India.
"Our youth are finding opportunities and taking risks in various fields which was evident in the registration of more than 1.25 lakh startups in India," he said. "Indian society, today, is filled with unprecedented aspirations and we have made these aspirations the basis of our policies," Modi said.
The prime minister said that his government made it a priority to provide gas connections to every house while the previous governments were debating on the number of cylinders to be given to people. He said that there were more than 30 crore gas connections in the country as against 14 crore in 2014.
Modi further highlighted that there was supporting infrastructure to ensure the demand for gas cylinders is met. He also listed other examples such as mobile phones, Rupay cards, UPI etc. which were based on the investment to employment, development to dignity model of development.
Explaining the government's 'spend big for the people and save big for the people" approach, the prime minister said India's Union Budget is Rs 48 lakh crore today as against Rs 16 lakh crore in 2014. Modi said today's capital expenditure is more than Rs 11 lakh crore as against Rs 2.25 lakh crore in 2013-14.
He added that the capital expenditure was being spent on new hospitals, schools, roads, railways, research facilities and many such public infrastructure. The prime minister underlined that along with increasing expenditure on the public, the government was also saving the public's money.
Modi said the leakage that has been stopped by DBT has saved the country Rs 3.5 lakh crore while free treatment under Ayushman Bharat Yojana had saved Rs 1.10 lakh crore for the poor.
He said the medicines available at an 80% discount at Jan Aushadhi Kendras have saved Rs 30 thousand crore for the citizens while controlling the prices of stents and knee implants has saved thousands of crores of rupees for people.
The prime minister said 10 years ago, nobody had anticipated such big changes in India to take place and added "India's success inspired us to dream bigger and fulfill it".
