Defence Minister Rajnath Singh has urged the opposition party leaders to restrain from ‘hate politics’ and focus on core issues. The opposition parties are trying to project the BJP as a political party from the northern belt and that it has no interest in the southern States. “This is baseless and by saying so they are trying to create animosity between the north and south States,” he said.
He was addressing a group of intellectuals in Visakhapatnam city at a meeting organised by the BJP on Tuesday.
“It is wrong to say that the BJP is a party from the north. We have formed governments in the east and also in the west and we have a formidable presence in both the regions. In the southern side, we have formed governments in Karnataka. So how can the Opposition make such a statement? We have our presence in Telangana and Andhra Pradesh and very shortly we will also form our government in Andhra Pradesh,” said Mr. Rajnath.
‘’It is agreed that the southern States are prosperous and the GSDP is higher. But we can always synergise the capital strength of the north and intellectual abilities of the south to form a stronger India,’‘ he said.
Talking about the success mantra of the BJP, he said, “We believe in deeds and not words. We promised to scrap Article 370 in Kashmir and we did it. We promised the scrapping of ‘triple talaq’ and we did it. Uttarakhand has already brought in the ‘uniform civil code’ and we will now do it across the country. We promised the construction of Ram Mandir and we did it. We believe in the politics of justice for humanity and we are not communal, as projected by the Opposition.”
Talking about the strong leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the Defence Minister pointed out that earlier India was not heard in any international forum and not taken seriously. ‘‘Now India speaks and the world listens’‘.
“The 21st century belongs to Bharat and from holding the 11th economic position in 2014, we have jumped to the fifth position and by 2027 we will be in the third position. Economic experts say that by 2070 India will be the number one developed nation, but the PM is working towards making India the number one by 2047,” said Mr. Rajnath.
He also pointed out that every country in the world is facing the current account deficit issue, but India is the only country that has kept it under control. This speaks of the BJP-led NDA government at the Centre and the leadership of the Prime Minister.
Speaking about the Prime Minister’s foreign policy, he said, “During the initial days of the Ukraine-Russia war, Mr. Modi spoke to Russian President Vladimir Putin, US President Joe Biden and President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy and the war was stopped for five hours to enable us to evacuate all our students then studying in Ukraine. The same happened in Qatar, when we could release eight of our naval officers who were sentenced to death.”
The Defence Minister said that GST was a game-changer and it has boosted the country’s economy tremendously, despite being criticised in the initial days.
“Our banking reforms have brought down the NPA from 11.8% to below 3% and PM’s Aadhaar-linked benefit transfer was a big boon for the beneficiaries. Very shortly India will become the hub for green hydrogen and semiconductors and Visakhapatnam will play a major role,” said Mr. Rajnath Singh.
Earlier, BJP’s State president D. Purandeswari and MP G.V.L. Narasimha Rao spoke. MP C.M. Ramesh, former MLA Vishnu Kumar Raju and others were present.
