Prime Minister Narendra Modi on October 21 in Gwalior said that the Central government in the past 10 years has taken various unprecedented decisions with long-term planning, and has also freed the nation from several pending tasks, including 33% reservation for women in the Lok Sabha and State Assemblies with the passage of the women’s reservation Bill, abrogation of Article 370 in Jammu and Kashmir, the one rank one pension (OROP) for ex-servicemen, implementation of the Goods and Services Tax (GST), and the banning of triple talaq.
Mr. Modi was speaking at the 125th founder’s day ceremony of the Scindia School in Gwalior in poll-bound Madhya Pradesh. Also present were Madhya Pradesh Governor Mangubhai Patel; Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan; Union Minister Narendra Singh Tomar; Union Minister Jitendra Singh, an alumnus of the school; and Union Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia, who is also the president of the school’s board of directors.
“Our government is going to complete 10 years. In these years, the decisions that the nation has taken with long-term planning are unprecedented. We have also freed the nation from the burden of many pending decisions,” he said.
“For 60 years, there was a demand to remove Article 370 from J&K, there was a demand of OROP for ex-servicemen for 40 years, there was a demand to implement GST for 40 years. Muslim women had been seeking a ban on triple talaq. Recently, the Parliament made a law for women’s reservation which was pending for decades. We completed all these tasks,” Mr. Modi said, adding, “I have a long list of these works that it will take the whole night.”
Saying that it was necessary to eradicate poverty from India, the Prime Minister said that the government would not rest until every poor person in the country had a gas connection, a bank account, a pucca house, and an Ayushman Bharat card. “Working on this path, 13.5 crore people have come out of poverty in the last five years. And by working on this path, India will eradicate poverty and become a developed nation,” the PM said, addressing a crowd of students, alumni, and teachers. “India is also preparing to open its own space station,” he added.
Mr. Modi said he had a special relationship with the people of Gwalior, and praised the Scindia family. “I am an MP from Kashi (Varanasi Lok Sabha constituency) and the Scindia family has long served Kashi by building several ghats and preserving our culture,” he said.
Mr. Modi also gave “homework” to the students and asked them to be engaged in various tasks, including conservation of water and nature, and cleanliness.
Built atop the 8th-century Gwalior fort, the Scindia School was established as the Sardar School in 1897 by Gwalior’s Maharaja Madhavrao Scindia I. The school has several notable alumni.
Mr. Scindia, who switched over from the Congress party to the BJP in 2020, has been actively campaigning in the Gwalior-Chambal region of State ahead of the upcoming Assembly elections.
