Hours after the Election Commission of India announced the Poll schedule for Lok Sabha 2024, the incumbent Prime Minister Narendra Modi delivered a address at the India Today Conclave. While highlighting PM Modi’s southern outreach, India Today’s Editor-in-Chief Aroon Purie asked PM Modi whether he was preparing for the Lok Sabha 2029 elections through his aggressive campaigning in Southern states where media projects grim poll prospects for the BJP.
Responding to the query, PM Modi asked him to employ the entire Aaj Tak team to decipher who is Modi. Replying to Purie’s Lok Sabha 2029 election pitch, PM Modi said, “You are stuck at only 2029, I am working for 2047.”
“While the world is stuck in uncertainty, the only certainty is that India will keep progressing at a fast speed. Today, the Mood of the nation speaks of making the country the third-largest economy in the World. Today, the Mood of the nation speaks of ‘Viksit Bharat’,” PM Modi asserted in his address.
All of you desire to get headlines, but I work with deadlines, PM Modi noted.
Comparing the lackadaisical approach of opposition parties to Startups, PM Modi stated, “Ten years back, there were very few startups, today more than 1.25 lakh startups have registered. These startups are spread in more than 600 districts with youth from Tier-II and tier-III leading the startups. A political outfit that never talked about startups is now forced to speak about Startups.”
“Earlier, the youth had to give a guarantee at every nook and cranny but Mudra Yojana gave loan guarantees to those who had nothing to give as a guarantee (mortgage). This is a major revolution. Rs 26 lakh crore bank loans have been granted to these small loan applicants”, PM informed the gathering.
PM Modi said that over the years, in my lifetime, I have seen Ameero ki gareebi and Gareebo ki Ameeri. (Rich man’s poor outlook and poor man’s large-hearted gestures). It was my belief to give loans to street vendors without guarantee. Recently, thousands of small street vendors had gathered for an event in Delhi which was largely blackened out from media coverage. Their efforts are praise-worthy as they not only adopted it but they also became the face of India’s digital revolution.
PM Modi continued, “Whether you want to call it a misuse of your platform, I will highlight the Namo Drone Didi Yojana. Recently, I handed over 1000 drones to women who are earning their living by selling pickles, papad etc.”
Taking a jibe at media persons, PM Modi said that these drones are not those which you show on Television for coverage of the war, these drones are “fortune makers for these women”. He added that women who may have not ridden a bicycle are now being known as ‘Drone Pilot’.
PM Modi explained that he could have given drones to young boys, but he wanted to break the mindset that get amazed when they see a female driving tractor.
Recalling the work he did as Gujarat CM, PM Modi stated that under his leadership Gujarat government gave uniforms to ASHA workers that were even better than those of air hostesses. The situation improved and villagers started thinking that these ASHA workers meant the government. I launched the Namo drone Didi with the same psyche, PM Modi added.
“You must have heard about the Health care scheme, Ayushman Yojana, now if you go to villages you will see ‘Ayushman Arogya Mandir’. Our efforts have been to ensure that in each village and block, we have modern healthcare facilities. For the same, we have built over 1.5 lakh Ayushman Arogya Mandir. Some people will stuck and complain Why Mandir? but it is their problem, not mine. These work are being done regularly but it didn’t get media coverage,” PM Modi continued in his first address post the announcement of election dates.
PM Modi told the gathering that the government is providing e-telemedicine facilities to villages which is also another manifestation of the digital revolution, apart from UPI. Around 24 crore citizens have taken consultations through E-Sanjeevni.
PM Modi further stated that his government undertook the development of 100 districts that had been left as laggards as aspirational districts adding that now the government is working in the same spirit at the block level.
Highlighting his government’s priority to North East, PM Modi said, “North East was given the least priority in the past governments but we prioritised the region. We decided that a minister or a senior official must visit the region every 15 days, visit interior places and spend the night there. Union ministers have visited the North East 680 times after 2014, and I have visited the North East more times than all the previous Prime Ministers combined.”
Similarly, PM Modi highlighted how the Union government tried to change the mindset of the system by changing the terminology — how the last village was started to be known as the first village. PM Modi emphasised that Ministers of the Modi government visited remote and scarcely populated villages not for elections but to take development to far-flung areas, to reach the last men in the line.
Taking a swipe at Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, PM Modi said that he means to target Industry 4.0 through Skill development while some are still occupied in fixing tires adding that the time to take screwdriver for them has long passed.
PM Modi also touched on his vision of One Earth, one health which encompasses all, environment and animals alike adding how schemes were enrolled taking them at center be it food and mouth disease or their vaccination.
“We are building 2 lakh storage godowns under the World’s largest storage scheme. The media’s interest revolves around showing grain wastage in rain which is not wrong at all but what should be its solution. With these godowns, farmers will not be forced to sell their produce, they can sell at the times of their choosing”, PM Modi said.
He stated that the influential persons used every means at their disposal to get things done while the ordinary men were plundered in their hassle. These ordinary men whom many recognise from RK Laxman’s cartoon, I have lived with them, PM Modi added, They never understood the ‘Ease of living’ and hardship of the common man.
Earlier, the average days to get a Passport was around 50 days that too required to make phone calls at right quarters now it has come down to just an average of 5 days. There were just 77 Passport Seva Kendra now there are around 525, PM Modi highlighted how his government worked for the Ease of living of common man.
Similarly, IT return was around 93 days now it is less than 10 days, toll plaza waiting time which was at around an average of 12 minutes, has now come down to around 30-40 seconds.
The penal code was done away with. They were framed by the British mindset and it had punishment at its heart rather than Nyay at its core. I had to come for them to depart, PM Modi added.
Highlighting the sharp reduction in compliances, PM Modi said, “Our government has repealed over 1,500 laws in the last ten years. The government should not interfere in every activity of citizens, if my mission of 2047 is fulfilled I will bring government out of everyone’s life. The government should be absent in every everyday activity of citizens, they should be free to live their life and fulfill their dreams. For ease of living, I have done away with over 40,000 compliances.”
Earlier, there was a tax on salaried persons whose income was around Rs 2 lakh which has now been increased to Rs 7 lakh slab. This has saved around Rs 2.5 lakh crores of taxpayers’ money. Similarly, the government has extended Rs 4.5 lakh crore discount to its citizens in railway tickets. Rs 30,000 crores have been saved from the Jan Ausdi Kendra, and over Rs 1,000 have been saved on internet data as per GB data cost has come down from Rs 250 per GB to Rs 10 GB data.
PM Modi emphasised how over 1 crore citizens have applied for PM Surya Ghar Muft Bijli Yojana which will give Rs 78,000 for citizens under this Solar scheme and 300 units of free electricity.
“I have come to inscribe a line on stone, not on butter. Earlier, governments had ruined the fortunes of PSUs be it BSNL, MTNL, or HAL, and many have spread fake news and falsehoods about LIC. Now, HAL has the largest helicopter manufacturing facility in the world. Today PSUs net profit has nearly doubled to Rs 2.5 lakh crores from 1.25. In ten years, PSUs net worth has increased from 9.5 crores to 17 lakh crores,” PM Modi said while lashing out at the opposition for carrying falsehoods about PSUs.
“To curb corruption, probing agencies are independent in taking action, Till 2014, around 1800 cases were registered under PMLA, in 4,700 cases have been registered in the last ten years. Till 2014, Rs 5,000 crore worth of property was attached, while over 1 lakh crore worth of property was attached in the last ten years. ED’s action on several bureaucrats unearthed mountains piles of cash which attracted the nation’s gaze, ” PM Modi noted that when agencies are given free hand, a lot of action gets done to curb corruption.
He added, “If action is to be undertaken at such fast speed, it is but natural for several people to get indigestion. Hence, they carry out a campaign to abuse Modi. In a reference to the television channel’s popular sketch, PM Modi said that the nation is saying, “So Sorry”, to these people as their ‘Niti niyat, nishta’ is under question”.
Towards the conclusion of his address, PM Modi talked about upcoming polls. He said, “This is election time, and our opposition friends are busy weaving paper dreams but Modi works beyond dreams, with resolutions. I can say with absolute certainty, upcoming five years will make India the third largest economy, upcoming years will be of a stable, progressing, strengthened India in a world full of uncertainty.”
He concluded by highlighting the roadmap for the next five years. He assured, “The upcoming five years will be of Infrastructure push, revamp in railways, Bullet train, expansion of vande Bharat trains, an unprecedented development in motorways, defense exports scripting new records, a new flight of space sector, Gaganyaan, new sectors coming on the horizon for Indian youths, solar power reaching every household, record rise in EV manufacturing, semiconductor mission, and hydrogen mission getting shape and several strategic decisions. I already started working to fulfill all these Sankalps, because it is a progressive unfoldment, I will come again to the India Today conclave to talk again on these Sankalp”. As the crowd busts into ‘Fir ek bar, ayega to Modi’, this is Mood of the Nation, PM Modi points out with a smile.