Manas Dasgupta
NEW DELHI, Oct 2: The Prime Minister Narendra Modi has said he make decisions based on Mahatma Gandhiji’s talisman that sees whether and how his decisions would benefit or harm the poorest or weakest person in the country.
“While taking decisions, I stop even if the slightest of vested interests is visible to me. The decision should be pure and authentic and if the decision passes through all these tests, then I firmly move forward to implement such a decision,” Modi said in an interview to a magazine published on Saturday.
The prime minister said politics in India had so far seen only one model under which governments were run to build the next government, while his fundamental thinking was different as he believed in running the government to build the nation. “The tradition has been to run the government to make your party win but my purpose is to run the government in a way to make our country win,” he said.
He also drew a distinction between his government and the previous governments saying earlier ones were fundamentally formed under the leadership of a person from “Congress Gotra.”
“And that is why, for each of them, there was no difference between their political thought process and economic thought process. Atalji (former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee) was given an opportunity by people but he didn’t have a full majority. It was a coalition Government. I am fortunate that this is the first non-Congress government that was given a full majority by the people. This means that the people of this country voted for complete change,” he added.
Accusing the opposition of “intellectual dishonesty” and “political deceit” in its criticism of his government and taking a U-turn and launching a malicious campaign for political reasons after earlier promising or advocating similar measures, Modi said tough and big decisions need to be taken to bring benefits to citizens who should have received these decades ago.
“Look at those who are opposing the pro-farmer reforms today, and people will see the real meaning of “intellectual dishonesty and rajneetik dhokhadhadi” (political deceit),” he said. It was one thing if a political party make a promise and was unable to deliver on it but what is a “particularly undesirable” and “detestable” trait is some of these parties made promises on the lines of the reforms enacted by his government and have now done a U-turn and spread “the most malicious kind of misinformation on the promises they themselves had made”, he said.
“These were the same people who wrote in their manifesto that they would enact the same reforms that we have brought. Yet, just because some other political party, blessed by the will of the people, is enacting the same reforms, they have made a complete U-turn and in a brazen display of intellectual dishonesty, completely disregard what will benefit the farmers and only seek what they think will benefit them politically,” Modi said. He asserted that his government is committed to empowering small farmers.
The ruling BJP has said that several opposition parties, including the Congress, had promised similar farm reforms that the Modi government has enacted but are now backing protests against the new laws for selfish political reasons. A section of farmers, especially in Punjab and part of Haryana and Uttar Pradesh, have been protesting against the laws, whose implementation have been put on hold.
The prime minister said similar “political deceit” can be seen when it comes to Aadhaar, GST and even crucial matters such as arming the security forces.
“Don’t you think political parties were making a mockery of themselves when their members spoke about the need for a new parliament, previous speakers said a new parliament was needed? But if someone tries to do it, they oppose it by making some excuses, how correct is this?” he replied to a question about his government’s reforms in fraught sectors like agriculture and labour.
He said, “The things that people of India are entitled to, those benefits that they should have received decades ago, have still not reached them. India shouldn’t be put in a situation where it has to wait any longer for the things that this country and its citizens are entitled to, we should give it to them. And, for this, big decisions should be taken and if need be, tough decisions should also be taken.”
The prime minister noted that his government had been saying right from the beginning that it was ready to sit together with the protesting farm bodies and discuss on those issues on which there was a disagreement. “Many meetings have also been held in this regard but no one till now has come up with a specific point of disagreement that we want this to be changed,” he said.
Referring to his government’s measures like cooking gas cylinder distribution and building toilets for the poor or push to digital payments, he said many sections of India’s political class view people through the lens of “Raj Shakti” (government’s power) while he sees them as “Jan Shakti” (people’s power).
The prime minister also asserted that India has done better than many developed countries in handling the Covid pandemic.
In an apparent attack on those who have criticised his government’s handling of the Covid pandemic, he said, “However, we have in our midst vested interests whose only aim is to tarnish India’s name. Covid was a global scourge with all countries equally affected. In this scenario, India has done better than its peers and many developed countries, notwithstanding such negative campaigns.”
The biggest lesson from the Covid fight has been that India has an unparalleled ability to unite, find a common purpose, come together, and a tremendous capacity to deliver when a need arises, he said. From being a net importer of personal protective equipment (PPE), India has now become one of the biggest manufacturers of Covid kits across the globe, he said. On the criticism against the banging of thalis and lighting diyas, Modi said there was a need to boost the morale of healthcare and frontline workers. He said the event turned into a big mass movement.
Modi also said he attached a big importance to criticism as it was his conviction that this helps in his own healthy development. “I, with an honest mind, respect critics a lot. But, unfortunately, the number of critics is very few. Mostly, people only level allegations, the people who play games about perception are more in number. And, the reason for this is that, for criticism, one has to do a lot of hardwork, research and, in today’s fast-paced world, maybe people don’t have time. So sometimes, I miss critics,” he said. “It does not mean that Modi has no faults or there is no point on which Modi can be criticized,” he added.
After years of compulsive reforms, his government has ushered in reforms through conviction, Modi said, noting that it undertook the exercise during the Covid period too in established sectors like insurance, agriculture and labour, or in futuristic sectors like telecom and space. “Our reforms are not only aimed at achieving our economic objective of Atmanirbhar Bharat but also focused on Ease of Living, unlike earlier governments which viewed economic reforms through a narrow prism of facilitating business ventures,” he said.