New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday said while the previous governments used to frame policies to suit vote bank politics, the current dispensation has ensured that people’s faith in the government is restored.
Delivering the keynote address at the HT Leadership Summit, the prime minister said his government is moving forward with the mantra of progress “of the people, by the people and for the people”.
“Our government has set a clear purpose. We are staying away from vote-bank politics and are working with the mantra of ‘progress for the people, by the people.’ We aim to make India a developed nation, and the people of India have entrusted us with their confidence. In this era of social media, where there is misinformation and disinformation, our government stands firm and resolute.
Recalling the period of 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 a 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.
