New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s speech caused a ruckus in the Rajya Sabha on Tuesday with Opposition members objecting to his statement that the Congress-led government renamed several schemes brought in by the previous NDA government.
“The UPA government renamed several schemes started by Atalji,” Modi said, reading out from a list which included MNREGA, the Sarv Shiksha Abhiyan and the pension scheme.
“Whether the schemes are new or old is not the issue. The issue is that the problems are old. We should look for solutions to these problems,” he said while replying to the debate on the motion of thanks to the president’s speech
The Prime Minister also hit out against charges that his government’s budget was pro-corporate.
“Is Swachch Bharat Abhiyaan for corporates? Can we not provide basic cleanliness facilities to the common man? When we build toilets in schools is it for corporates,” he said .
These are the highlights from his speech:
*More than the party we belong to, it is about the state that we represent in this House
*In a democracy, threats do not and cannot work. For 14 years in Gujarat, I was threatened with jail
We do not feel that just because we are in the treasury benches we know it all. Everyone has to work together
*I had said from the ramparts of the Red Fort. Every government, every PM has contributed in taking this country forward.
*Governments do not run this country, it is the people of India who do
*We don’t think that the birth of the nation took place on August 15, 1947. It happened thousands of years before that.
*UPA accuses us of renaming schemes, they renamed NDA’s schemes
*Go from Kutch to Arunachal Pradesh, and you’ll see it is represented by BJP in this House. There was a time when people thought this was a party from the Hindi belt.
*BJP is in power in Goa and Nagaland which have predominantly Christian voters. The BJP is in Punjab which has a majority Sikh population. It is part of the government in Jammu and Kashmir which has large number of Muslims.
*There was a time when people said this was a party of the upper castes, after seeing me those people may have had to change their views.
*The perceptions you talk about are very old; BJP isn’t an upper caste or Hindi-belt party
*This Swachhata Abhiyaan, is this for corporates? Can we not provide basic cleanliness facilities to the common man?
*When we build toilets in schools is this for corporates? Is soil health card for corporates?
*Opposition accuses us of transferring IAS officers. In 2004, UPA removed all the secretaries and governors as soon as it came to power
* We are moving towards mobile governance. There are now 90 crore mobiles in the country now. That number will go up. Bridging the digital divide is part of fight against poverty.
*This government will spare no efforts to bring back black money
* We are concerned about farmers. The new Land Acquisition Bill seeks to plug loopholes in the old law, we request the cooperation of opposition parties.
*I congratulate people of Jammu and Kashmir for smooth conduct of polls in the state.
