PremiumNEW DELHI : Days after the Congress announced the Nyuntam Aay Yojana (NYAY scheme), a minimum income guarantee scheme, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday hit out at the party saying that “four generations of a family" have been repeating the same promise of eradicating poverty, but not fulfilling them.
With less than two weeks to go for the first phase of polling, PM Modi highlighted the work done by the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government, and said that the focus for the next five years will be on addressing the “aspirations and ambitions" of the country.
PM Modi was addressing an event as part of the Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) election campaign—“Main Bhi Chowkidar" (I am a watchman too)—in New Delhi, which was video streamed across 500 locations in India.
Union cabinet ministers, BJP chief ministers and party workers were in attendance across all the locations.
“In the last five years I put all my strength to do away with what was lacking, to fulfil the necessities—from toilets, electricity, roads and trains to buses, and the next five years will be to address the ambitions and aspirations of the people," PM Modi said.
Last week, the Congress party had announced the minimum income guarantee scheme, which aims to provide ₹72,000 annually, or ₹6,000 every month, to 20% of the poorest families in India.
“If four generations of a family have been repeating the same promise, but not doing anything towards fulfilling it, then people need to understand it."
Modi also alleged that the party came up with “lies" depending on which state was going to poll.
In his address, Modi took questions from different centres on the recent air strikes, corruption, new voters and Mission Shakti. Responding to a question on the Balakot air strikes, he said that it had put Pakistan in a dilemma. The PM said that terrorism had been a problem for 40 years and it was important to control it from where it started.
“They have been saying that there are no terror camps. Now they have to hide it. They are not allowing anybody to go there. We’ve been told Balakot area is being reconstructed by Pakistan to show that a school is being run there, so that people can be taken there and shown that no terror camp existed there," the Prime Minister said.
One of the key issues in the forthcoming Lok Sabha elections is corruption. Referring to the recent economic offenders who fled the country, PM Modi said that we have brought them closer to jail in five years.
“I will not let anybody put hands on your money under my guard. It is my responsibility as the chowkidar (watchman) to make sure that the nation’s wealth is safe," he said. Led by PM Modi, BJP leaders, workers and supporters have added “chowkidar" to their official Twitter user names. The issue has been a point of contention between the opposition parties led by the Congress party and the BJP-led NDA. The campaign was in response to Congress’s “Chowkidar Chor Hain" (“The watchman is a thief") campaign.
