- Tuesday, April 30, 2024
Speaking at an election rally in the north-eastern state of Assam, the Indian PM said there is “Modi’s guarantee across the country and I am giving the guarantee of fulfilling all these guarantees”.
By: Shubham Ghosh
INDIAN prime minister Narendra Modi asserted on Wednesday (17) that he went to people with hope in 2014, trust in 2019 and guarantee in 2024.
The leader is seeking a rare third consecutive mandate this year, a feat which has been accomplished only by Jawaharlal Nehru, the country’s first prime minister till date. Modi led his Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and its National Democratic Alliance (NDA) to grab 336 seats in the 2014 elections, a tally it improved to 351 five years later. This year, the Hindu nationalist leaders and their supporters are expressing confident of winning 400 seats in the 543-member Lok Sabha or the popularly elected Lower House of the parliament.
Speaking at an election rally in the north-eastern state of Assam two days before the first phase of the voting, he said there is “Modi’s guarantee across the country and I am giving the guarantee of fulfilling all these guarantees”.
Read: Leaders on whirlwind tours as campaign for 1st phase of India election ends
“The North East is a witness to Modi’s guarantee as the Congress had only given problems to the region but the BJP has made it a source of possibilities,” Modi, whose BJP has over the last decade displaced the Indian National Congress to become the main political force in the region, said.
”Congress fuelled insurgency but Modi embraced people and brought peace in the region. What could not be achieved in 60 years of Congress rule, Modi achieved it in 10 years”, he added.
Read: Battle of manifestos ahead of India elections: Modi’s Guarantee vs Congress’s NYAY
Modi also spoke about the Ram Navami celebrations that were being held across the country on Wednesday, including in Ayodhya where he inaugurated the much anticipated Ram temple in January.
He said that birth celebrations of Lord Ram are being held in Ayodhya after 500 years with a ‘Surya Tilak’ ceremony where a thick beam of sunlight illuminated the forehead of the blackstone-statue of Ram Lalla (child Lord Ram).
”We cannot join the celebrations in Ayodhya, but let us participate in the event by switching on our mobile flashlights and sending light and prayers to Lord Ram”, he said.
”A new atmosphere is prevailing in the entire country as we celebrate the birth celebrations of Lord Ram in his own temple after 500 years and this is a culmination of centuries of devotion and generations of sacrifice”, he added.
Modi also said in his speech that free ration will continue to be provided to all without discrimination for the next five years.
“The NDA government believes in ‘Sabka Saath, Sabka Vikas’ and ensures that each citizen gets the benefits they are entitled to without any discrimination,” he added.
Referring to the abolition of ‘triple talaaq’ (the Muslim practice of men giving divorce to their wives by repeating the word talaaq thrice), Modi said this has freed the Muslim women. ”We made a law against it which benefitted not only the Muslim sisters, but their entire family as triple talaq had destroyed the lives of many women and their families,” he added.
He said Muslim women in Assam have also benefited from the law.
“Assam has also witnessed unprecedented development during the last 10 years and when the intentions are right, the results are also good”, he said.
Recently, the Prime Minister had laid the foundation of a semiconductor testing facility in Assam which will provide over 15,000 jobs to the youth.
”This has been a historic and unprecedented step. Assam will soon be recognised as a semiconductor hub”, Modi said.
Modi was in Assam to campaign for candidates of the NDA in three constituencies – Asom Gana Parishad’s Phani Bhushan Choudhury who is contesting from Barpeta, United People’s Party Liberal’s Jayanta Basumatary from Kokrajhar and BJP’s Bijuli Kalita Medhi of Guwahati, who all were present at the rally.
Five constituencies in Assam will go to polls on Friday.
Assam has 14 parliamentary constituencies and the BJP’s NDA won nine of them in the 2019 elections.
