New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi had addressed Lok Sabha on Friday. He had assured Parliament of his commitment to religious equality and tolerance and said, “My government has only one religion – India first.”
Amid concerns and criticism that religious minorities are being targeted by Hindu extremists, he said, “Nobody has the right to discriminate on the basis of religion. My government has only this ideology – India and the Constitution above all else.”
PM Modi also took a jibe over Congress and claimed MNREGA as failure of last government. He said NDA government will not stop UPA’s flagship programme Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MNREGA) and that it is a living example of the monument of the previous government’s failures.
He said, “I have a good political sense and it says never stop MNREGA. My mindset says MNREGA is an evidence of failure of the previous government. MNREGA will stay. My political instinct says don’t end MNREGA. I will never make that mistake. MNREGA will stay but yes we will add value to it so that they can benefit the poor.”
Modi said that the fact that the Congress had been defeated with such a huge margin should be indicative of the fact that the grand old party of the country should sit and reflect on what it did wrong. Referring to the Congress’ defeat both in the Lok Sabha polls as well as the recently concluded Delhi elections, in which the party did not win even a single seat, he said, “History is a witness, Congress never lost with such a margin.”
Targeting the Congress on its protest against the Land Acquisition Bill, he said, “Land acquisition lekar maidan mein aye the, itni kam seats Congress ki kabi nhi ayin, agar act kisaano ko pasand ata, to aap jeet te.”
Hinting that whatever work the government had done in the past nine months was just clearing up the mess that the previous government had created over its 15-year rule, he said, “We are trying to address ‘old’ problems which we inherited.”
He even took on the Congress on the black money issue, saying that the Congress did not do anything while it was in power to address the black money issue. Referring to it, he asked the Congress, “Why was an SIT not formed on black money when SC asked?”
In a veiled attack and without naming the Congress, he said that India had suffered due to the corrupt practices that had become the norm in government offices during the previous government’s tenure. He said, “Corruption has ruined our nation & corruption should not be talked of in context of politics that makes in into a ‘tu tu mai mai’ format.”
His reassurance comes after a series of attacks on Christian institutions and churches in Delhi; this week, a church in Mangalore in Karnataka was vandalized.
A week ago, at an event organized by Christian leaders in Delhi, PM Modi had said, “No religious group can incite violence… my government will ensure there is complete freedom of faith.”
Opponents say that since coming to office, Modi has failed to rein in affiliate groups of his party, the BJP, from suggesting that the government will follow a Hindu agenda. The last Parliament session was stalled with a united opposition protesting against ghar wapasi, a campaign by hardliner Hindu groups to convert Christians and Muslims to Hinduism.
Bureau Report
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