On his tour of the poll-bound Gujarat, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday made a nostalgic visit to his birthplace, Vadnagar, and said the place has taught him to “drink and digest poison”.
He was apparently referring to the attacks on him during his tenure as Gujarat Chief Minister after the riots of 2002 in the State.
“The blessings of Bhole Baba (lord Shiva) gave me the strength to drink and digest poison. Due to this ability, I was able to counter all those who spewed venom against me since 2001. This ability gave me the strength to serve the motherland with dedication over these many years,” he said, while noting that his birthplace is the land of Shiva, like Kashi (Varanasi), his lok Sabha constituency. The Prime Minister — who once sold tea at the Vadnagar railway station — did his schooling in Vadnagar, an ancient town which was once home to a Buddhist monastery and has a centuries-old Shiva temple.
“I started my journey from Vadnagar and now I have reached Kashi. Just like Vadnagar, Kashi is the town of Bhole Baba. Bhole Baba’s blessings gave me immense strength, and this strength is the biggest gift I have received from this land,” Modi said, while addressing a public meeting after inaugurating a newly-built medical college and launching an immunisation programme.
The visit to his birthplace came 16 years after Modi, the then BJP general secretary, returned from Delhi to Gandhinagar to become Chief Minister of Gujarat on October 7, 2001. Modi also launched the “Intensified Mission Indradhanush” in order to achieve the goal of full immunisation coverage across the country and promised to make healthcare affordable to everyone, especially the poor.
Addressing a public rally after inaugurating Rs 600 crore project of medical college and 300-bed hospital, the Prime Minister said he is literally shaken after knowing that the price of stent is as high as Rs 2 lakh.
“Heart patients would get heart attack after knowing the high prices of stent. After the NDA Government came into power it made it a point to reduce the prices of stent by at least 30 per cent. Under the Central Government’s Jan Aushadhi Scheme, generic medicine stores have opened in Government civil hospitals where medicines are available at cheaper rates,’’ said Modi, adding that his Government is continuously trying to make healthcare affordable to everyone.
Modi came down heavily on the Congress saying the previous Manmohan Singh Government at the Centre ignored healthcare sector and didn’t bother to even increase the number of seats in the medical colleges.
He criticised the UPA Government for not announcing health policy during its rule and said the last heath policy was announced by the NDA Government 15 years ago under the leadership of then Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee.
He further said his Government is aiming at increasing 6,000 seats in the medical colleges across the country.
‘’I had appealed to doctors across the country to treat poor pregnant females free of charge on the 9th day of every month. The response was really positive as nearly 85 lakh under privileged women got free treatment since then. Hopefully this practice would continue in future too as giving back to society for 12 out of 365 days is possible for any practicing doctor,’’ he said.
Modi also visited Bharuch, the home-town of Congress President Sonia Gandhi’s political secretary Ahmed Patel where he inaugurated new plants at Gujarat Narmada Valley Fertilizer limited (GNFC), flagged off a new train Antoydaya Express which will run between Surat to Jaynagar in Bihar and laid foundation stone for Rs 4,500 crore barrage project on River Narmada using technology.
He attacked the opposition party at Bharuch too blaming that the previous Congress-led Government allowed black marketing of urea instead of providing to farmers.
Modi claimed that by making it mandatory to make urea neem coated, black marketing of the important agriculture input has completely been stopped and as a result of it availability of urea had become easy.
During his two day visit to the poll bound Gujarat, Modi dedicated or laid foundation for Rs 12,000 crore projects in Saurashtra, North Gujarat and South Gujarat.