Asserting that the BJP Government has taken major strides towards the development of poor villagers and farmers with the Union Budget unleashing a slew of allocations for “gaon, garib aur kisan”, BJP president Amit Shah on Saturday said the Garibi Hatao movement is finally finding its feet under the Modi dispensation, which is taking “one new initiative every 15 days”.
This, even as he took up the raging controversies over nationalism and freedom of speech and slammed efforts to pass off “anti-national acts as freedom of expression”. He sought the party workers to ignite “nationwide patriotism” saying, “Desh bhakti ka alakh jagayein (arouse the spirit of patriotism in the nation)”.
Delivering the inaugural address at the two-day National Executive of the BJP at the NDMC convention centre here, Shah lashed out at Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi for “supporting” those raising anti-national slogans saying “such activities cannot be tolerated at any cost”.
Hitting out at the Congress and Rahul, Shah said they have a “negative mindset” and hence, are making all baseless allegations against the Modi Government.
He said any plan which is geared against the unity and integrity of the country will not be allowed to succeed by the party.
Maintaining that the Congress imposed Emergency and banned freedom of Press when it was in power, Shah said it should not lecture the BJP on freedom of speech. “We support freedom of speech but will not let any effort to break the country’s unity succeed,” Shah said.
The meet is being attended by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Shah, Union Ministers Arun Jaitley, M Venkaiah Naidu, Rajnath Singh, Sushma Swaraj and all other Cabinet Ministers and Chief Ministers of BJP-ruled States.
Veteran party leader lK Advani also attended the conclave and along with Modi, Shah and Jaitley was seated on the dais.
A socio-economic resolution was passed by the meet which underlined the economic plan and policies of the Government for the betterment of the people belonging to “poor and marginal” sections. The main inputs for the resolution were given by the party general secretary Bhupendra Yadav.
On Sunday, a political resolution focusing on national and international events would be passed by the meet with main inputs from another BJP general secretary Ram Madhav.
Shah was effusive in his praise of the Union Budget and its “increasing focus” on impoverished villagers and farmers. Affirming that the promises to remove poverty have after a long time found feet under the Modi dispensation, Shah detailed the Prime Minister’s crop insurance scheme for providing economic security to the farmers and described it “ a revolutionary step”.
He also outlined the “people-centric” welfare measures of the Modi Government like the Mudra Bank and implementation of the OROP scheme for ex-servicemen among others.
Compared to agriculture growth rate of 2 per cent in Congress-ruled States, the BJP-governed States have a rate of 10 per cent, the BJP chief said.