Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday said that among all the castes, the poor, the youth, women, and farmers were the biggest for him, and that only the uplift of these “castes” would lead to the progress of the country. The remarks gained traction as they were made amid the Opposition Congress’ calls for a nationwide caste census, and the raising of the slogan, “to each according to their number”.
The remarks were made by Mr. Modi while interacting with the beneficiaries of government schemes under the Viksit Bharat Sankalp Yatra via video conference. The yatra is a part of the government’s initiative for “saturation coverage” of its welfare programmes.
Mr. Modi said that people had confidence in his government looking at its record of the last decade.
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“People have also seen that period when earlier governments used to consider themselves ‘mai-baap’ (paternalistic feudal mindset) of the people. Therefore, even after decades of Independence, a big portion of the population was deprived of basic facilities,” he said. “More than half the population had lost faith in governments,” Mr. Modi added, further stating that “governments in the past used to look at political benefit and vote bank while undertaking works”.
This mindset, he said, was the reason for the lack of trust among people over announcements made by the government. “We have changed this and the government in place now considers people as form of God and we work with ‘seva bhav’ (spirit of service) not ‘satta bhav’ (sprit of ruling),” he said.
During the event, Mr. Modi also launched an initiative to increase the number of Jan Aushadhi Kendras, which sell medicines at subsidised rates, from 10,000 to 25,000, as well as the ‘Drone Didi Yojana’, a scheme aiming to provide drones to 15,000 select women self-help groups (SHG) for renting out to farmers for agricultural purposes.
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The Viksit Bharat Sankalp Yatra is being undertaken across the country with an aim to attain saturation of flagship schemes of the government by ensuring that the benefits of these schemes reach all targeted beneficiaries in a time-bound manner, according to a statement issued by the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO).
Mr. Modi said that in just 15 days of the yatra, people were walking along and joining it. “People are now identifying the raths (chariots) in the yatra as the ‘Modi ki guarantee wali gaadi” (the chariot of Modi’s guarantees),” he said, adding, “A voice is heard across the country that Modi’s guarantee begins from where people’s expectations from others end.”
