“Party, Government Must Set Goals for Next 25 Years and Work Continuously to Achieve Them:” Modi

Manas Dasgupta

NEW DELHI, May 20: Claiming that eight years of the BJP rule at the centre was devoted to balanced development and social justice and to bring the people out of the despair restoring their faith in the government’s delivery mechanism, the Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday said it was time for the party and his government to set goals for the next 25 years and continuously work to achieve the same.

Addressing virtually the party workers and office-bearers assembled in Jaipur, Modi lambasted the opposition parties trying to create divisions among the people at the flimsiest reasons and advised his party from being distracted by the opposition attempts and stick to the issues of development and national interests. Accusing an “ecosystem” of some political parties of trying their best to divert the country’s attention from main issues, he asked the party workers to avoid any shortcuts and get their attentions diverted from the main issues. “We don’t have to fall in their trap,” he said.

He kept up his attack on dynastic parties and asserted that the eight years of his government have been dedicated to the country’s balanced development, social justice and social security. While the BJP has brought development into the mainstream of national politics, some political parties have been playing with the country’s future for their momentary benefits, he claimed, hitting out at rivals without naming them.

For their selfish interests, the parties look for small tensions and weaknesses in the society to pour poison into them, Modi alleged, adding they incite people sometime in the name of caste or regionalism. It was essential for the BJP, which is moving forward with its dream of ‘Ek Bharat, Shrestha Bharat‘, to keep cautioning people against these forces and parties, he said.

Noting that since the days of Jana Sangh, the forerunner to the BJP, patriotism, national interest and nation-building were at the centre of its policies and programmes, he said this patriotism has inspired the party to focus on development and trust. He said, “Friends, we don’t ever have to take any shortcut. We have to move forward on the core issues associated with the country’s interests. Our steps should not go astray and we don’t have to let our tongues slip.”

“What are these core issues? Poor’s welfare, making the poor’s life easier. We have to keep working to empower the poor. We never have to lose our way,” the Prime Minister said. He told the BJP members that countless attempts would be made to detract their focus from the country’s main issues and urged them to stick to the matters of development.

“We have been seeing how the ecosystem of some parties is trying with their full strength to distract the country’s attention from its main issues. We never have to fall in the trap of these parties,” Modi added. Though he did not mention any topic directly, his comments apparently hinted at the opposition parties who have alleged that the BJP has been trying to increase communal tensions for political gains.

Modi asked the party leaders and workers to launch a campaign to ensure that no poor, eligible beneficiary is left out of the government’s welfare measures. “This month, the NDA government will complete eight years. These eight years have been of resolutions and accomplishments. These eight years have been committed to service, good governance and welfare of the poor,” he said.

Modi said eight years have been of fulfilment of the expectations of small farmers, labourers and the middle class.

“These eight years have been of the country’s balanced development, social justice and social security. These eight years have been dedicated to the empowerment of mothers, daughters and sisters,” he said. The BJP government post-2014 has restored the faith of the people in the government, its systems and its delivery mechanism, that had been lost earlier, the prime minister added.

Modi said the world was looking at India with great expectations today. “Similarly, in India, the people have a special affection for the BJP. The people of the country are looking at the BJP with great faith and hope,” he said.

After 2014, the BJP brought people out of despair and today people are full of aspirations, the prime minister said.

“This hope and aspirations of the people of the country increase our responsibility,” he told the BJP office-bearers.

In the 75th year of Independence, the country is setting for itself the goals for the next 25 years, he noted, adding this is the time for the BJP to fix the goals for the next 25 years and to work continuously for them.

Modi asked the BJP leaders to launch a campaign to see that no poor or eligible beneficiary was left out of the government’s welfare measures and the participation of more people, especially the youth eager to write “code” for the country’s prosperous future, with the party. Modi said the BJP has to keep fighting the dynastic parties to save democracy and empower it. These parties exist to further family interests and have inflicted a lot of damage on the country, he said.