Giving credit to the people of India for electing a political party with complete majority, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday said that it has great significance, much beyond gaining power and forming the Government.
“The President of China is commencing his visit from Ahmedabad. This is the result of the people’s decision to give complete majority to a single party,” said Modi during his felicitation function at Adalaj on the outskirts of the State Capital Gandhinagar.
Addressing over 10,000 party workers who came from all across the State, Modi said that for the first time in 30 years, a stable Government with full majority has been elected at the Centre. He said the whole world had been waiting for three decades for this moment, and now the perception of the world towards India is changing for the better.
The Prime Minister appealed to the people to elect a Government with clear mandate in all elections, as it is in the interest of the development of nation, irrespective of which party they choose.
“The last ten years were wasted as there was a Govern-ment without full majority. That gap has to be filled now,” he said, adding that in 1984 the BJP was reduced to mere two seats and most of the stalwarts of the party were defeated. Despite that, the party workers toiled hard to win the love of the people and all credit goes to the BJP’s organisational skills, he added.
He expressed surprise that his Government at the Centre was being criticised for a slow start. Modi said he himself was a “very small man” and always lived for the common man. “My dream is to do something for the small people and when they come up, you will wonder at the heights India will reach,” he added.
Talking about the importance of small things, he said that his Government recently launched the Jan Dhan scheme, asking the banks to compulsorily open accounts for the poor. This initiative would give a chance to the common man to be part of the economic process, he added.
Modi pointed out that banks existed before him also and so did the common man. He pointed out that the small farmers were always ‘heavily exploited’ by moneylenders but none of the Governments in the past thought of any such scheme to stop the exploitation.
“Has not the Jan Dhan scheme helped the small farmers to wriggle out of the exploitationIJ This is the difference between my Government and the Governments of the past. I could see this but they did not," Modi said.
He brought up the concept of ‘Team India’ and emphasised on the need to strengthen the federal structure saying that the country would only prosper, if all the States develop fast. He said the Union Government wants every State to be strong, and will support States in their quest for development, irrespective of whichever party is running the State Government.
Ahead of the felicitation function, Modi got a hero's welcome at Sardar Patel Airport in Ahmedabad. He was warmly welcomed at the airport by nearly 8,000 people including party president Amit Shah, Chief Minister Anandiben Patel, State officials and a large number of party workers.
Responding to the grand welcome, Modi said that a new atmosphere of trust has been generated in the Government in the first 100 days of the new Government at the Centre. He said, in these 100 days, he has tried to understand the problems of the country, and to work honestly towards finding solutions to them. His 14 years' experience as Gujarat Chief Minister had helped him a lot in this regard, he added.
Meanwhile BJP president Amit Shah said that in the 100 days of Modi Government, the people's confidence in its leader has been strengthen.