Modi hails delivery of promises in his tenure

NEW DELHI: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday said his guarantees or assurances have become a guarantee in themselves, with people reposing faith in his word, making a pitch for re-election in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls based on the delivery of promises to the people.

He also opted to redefine caste categorisation and said the classification for him was youth, women, poor and the farmers, whose betterment and empowerment was his goal.

“Modi’s guarantee begins where expectation from others ends,” he said addressing the beneficiaries of the Viksit Bharat Sankalp Yatra.

The “Modi guarantees” is a counter to the slew of poll promises made by the Opposition, particularly the Congress, dubbed as “guarantees”. These guarantees were announced by the Opposition in various states to match the BJP’s social welfare initiatives and programmes. The PM, in his speech, sought to underline that unlike the Opposition that makes promises that are not kept, the BJP government is known for fulfilling assurances.

The Viksit Bharat Sankalp Yatra was launched a fortnight ago across the country to attain saturation of flagship schemes of the government by ensuring that the benefits of these schemes reach all the targeted beneficiaries in a time-bound manner.

“There is such enthusiasm for the yatra and there is for a reason for it, as people have seen Modi, his work, in the last 10 years and therefore, they have immense confidence in the government and its efforts...People are now identifying the ‘raths’ in the yatra as the ‘Modi ki guarantee wali gaadi [vehicle]’,” Modi said.

He said that before the BJP came to power at the Centre in 2014, governments largely ignored the basic needs of the citizens, and a sizeable population was deprived of basic amenities such as houses, toilets, electricity, gas connections, insurance and bank accounts.

Lashing out at previous governments, which he accused of fostering corruption and appeasement, he said, “...People of the country have also seen that period when the earlier governments considered themselves the lords and masters (mai baap). Because of this, a large population of the country remained deprived of basic facilities for many decades after Independence,” he said.

Through the policies and social welfare schemes launched since 2014, the BJP says it has created a constituency of beneficiaries or labarthis who have benefitted from policy intervention such as subsidies for home construction, cooking gas, power and water connection.

“People are a testimony to the work Modi has done, which makes them trust the government and the work it does for them. Our government has bridged the trust deficit which was prevalent between the previous governments and the people. Our top priority is people’s well-being. We are here to serve people, not to rule them,” he said.

The PM also set a template for his party colleagues by stating how his image was synonymous with the delivery of promises and a brand to reckon with. He cited the example of the Jan Aushadhi Kendras now being called ‘Modi’s Medicine Shop’” and said the PM Garib Kalyan Anna Yojna that has been extended for another five years proved that “Modi’s guarantee means the guarantee of fulfillment.”

While the BJP’s electoral edifice is built on a rainbow coalition of castes, with government having designed programmes for social groups including backwards, Scheduled Castes and Schedules Tribes, the PM said the biggest caste for him was the poor, the youth, women and farmers. “I will not rest until the issues of the poor, women, farmers and the youth are completely addressed”, the PM said.

The government’s priority, he said, was to ensure that the extended benefits reached the intended beneficiaries, “Only the upliftment of these four castes will make India developed.”

Asserting that everyone should benefit from Modi’s guarantee, he said, “Government policies are not for the MPs to make a poster of. For me, each rupee spent should reach the people at the grassroots level. My aim behind the Sankalp Yatra is to know about the experiences of those who have already benefitted from our schemes and to know who all need to be further included.”

During the event, Modi also launched an initiative to increase the number of Jan Aushadhi Kendras, which sell generic medicines at subsidised rates and dedicated the 10,000th Jan Aushadi Kendra at AIIMS, Deoghar to the nation. The PM also launched the ‘Drone Didi Yojana, which seeks to provide drones to 15,000 women Self Help Groups between 2024-25 to 2025-2026 for providing rental services to farmers for agriculture purpose.

HT reached out to the Congress for a response on the matter but didn’t get a reaction immediately.

Some light moments as PM interacts with beneficiaries

There were many lighter moments during Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s interaction with beneficiaries of the Viksit Bharat Sankalp Yatra via video conferencing on Thursday. Noticing a woman pull her chair closer to where a village sarpanch Balveer Kaur was seated during the interaction with the PM, Modi’s tongue-in-cheek comment had the audience in splits.

While Kaur, a resident of Jammu’s Arnia was giving details of the benefits she’s received from multiple government schemes such as the Kisan Credit Card scheme, Farm Machinery Bank Scheme and Kisan Samman Nidhi Yojna, a woman pushed her way into the row where the village chief was sitting. Watching the woman inch closer to the sarpanch’s chair, the PM quipped that she needed to be mindful of her chair as people were coming in and new claimants were pushing. “Ab sarpanch wo hi ban jayengi”, (now she will become the sarpanch) he joked.

Modi also congratulated her for being the owner of a tractor that was purchased using Kisan Credit Card and joked, “you have a tractor, I do not even have a bicycle”.

Even as he urged the beneficiaries to “bless him” by voting for him, the PM also asked them to create awareness about the various schemes that they have benefitted from so that the others can gain from the schemes as well.