Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday said providing benefits of government schemes to the needy ireespective of caste and religion is true secularism, adding that the selective approach of previous governments towards development forced a sizeable population in the country to yearn for basic facilities.
“In the many decades since Independence, the approach of ruling regimes towards development was selective, forcing a numerically sizeable population of the country yearning for basic facilities. But our double engine government changed that; we are making lives of every citizen easier and providing benefits of governments schemes to the needy people of all the sections of society. It is social justice and secularism in the true sense. This is the social justice that [socialist leaders] J.P. [Narayan] and [Ram Manohar] Lohia dreamed of,” said Mr. Modi in Lucknow launching 14,000 projects across Uttar Pradesh worth more than ₹10 lakh crore at the fourth ground-breaking ceremony for investment proposals received during the Uttar Pradesh Global Investors Summit.
Lauding the transformation of Uttar Pradesh in the last seven years under the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) regime, the PM said it was unimaginable seven years ago that such a favourable environment for investments would come in the State, due to high rate of crime and communal flare-ups.
