BJP president Amit Shah on Sunday claimed that his party has brought in an “institutional change” in the way MPs and MlAs interacted with the masses and restored faith in the multi-party democratic system of the country.
Shah alleged that MPs and MlAs were inaccessible to people during the Congress rule and that it was the BJP which changed “the character “of public representatives who are now reach out to ‘Janta’ rather it coming to them.
Addressing a function here after releasing a community outreach magazine of BJP MP Maheish Giri, Shah also claimed that prior to the formation of Modi Government, people were beginning to “question their faith” in a “multi-party democratic system”.
“I grew up in a village... Elected representatives from Congress were there in many parts of the country. We had seen that meeting an MlA or an MP was unimaginable. It was not possible to meet even the associates of these persons (lawmakers).
“No one would dare take anyone to their house. If someone got an opportunity to shake hands with them (MlAs/MPs) from below a stage, they would not shake hands with anyone else for next three days. Such was the scenario,” Shah said.
But, the BJP, in a multi-party system, has changed the “character” of a public representative, the BJP president said.
“Today, people do not go to their representatives. The elected representatives hold ‘janata darbar’, take rounds in hospitals and public places”, Shah said.
He said public representatives cannot discharge functions effectively unless they reach out to the people.
“If he doesn’t know, what the people are thinking, then that elected representative will not be able to fulfil his duties,” Shah said.
The BJP president said it was logistically not possible to reach out to every party worker in person, let alone every person in public.
New communication technologies have evolved, but in the last 10-15 years facts have been presented in a distorted way, and reaching out to people is essential to clear the haze on these issues, he said.
“There was a time when people were looking for an alternative, wondering if the multi-party democratic system built by our constitution makers had failedIJ” he said.
But then 2014 came, and “after 30 years” a party formed a government with a complete majority. Also, a non-Congress party formed a complete majority Government for the first time after Independence, he said.
He said in three years the BJP has shown that “even in a multi-party democratic system, against all odds and amid all obstacles, creation of a great nation is possible,” Shah added.