New Delhi, Mar 20: Union Minister of Home and Cooperation Amit Shah Wednesday said that the 10 years of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government were the golden period of the country.
Speaking at the fourth edition of the CNN-News18 marquee leadership conclave — Rising Bharat Summit 2024 – which was held in New Delhi from March 19 to 20, the Home Minister said, the Home Minister said, “The last 10 years were a golden period for the country where every citizen now takes pride in being Indian.”
He said that during these 10 years, 60 crore poor people had been given basic amenities like food, water, healthcare, and homes.
Shah said that former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee left India at 11th rank in the largest economies of the world.
“The economist Prime Minister Manmohan Singh maintained it in the same rank for 10 years and Modi Ji made it the 5th largest economy in 10 years,” he said. “This is PM Modi’s guarantee that we will make India the 3rd-largest economy in the third term.”
The Home Minister said that in the last 10 years, the digital revolution transformed lives and Indian startups gained sway on the global platform during this period.
ELECTORAL BONDS
About the issue surrounding electoral bonds, he said: “If Rahul Gandhi considers donations as extortion, then he should be speaking about the donations received by the Indi Alliance. He should make it clear from where they received Rs 6000 crores. The court verdict will make way for the return of cut money by way of cash payments. PM Modi had assaulted this corrupt system. Through bonds a ban was imposed on black money through electoral bonds, there is no scope for cutting money in it.
After the truth about electoral bonds comes out, the opposition will not be able to show its face. The ones in the INDI Alliance take donations not for their parties, but to run their generations.”
Shah said that the more the opposition abuses PM Modi, the more the lotus would bloom.
“In 2014, the BJP received 81 percent of donations in cash, in 2018 it became 17 percent, and in 2023 it is only 3 percent,” he said. “Ninety percent of the donations received by the BJP were during the code of conduct.”
The Home Minister said that the agencies had recovered Rs 51 crore from Mamata Banerjee’s minister’s home and Rs 355 crore from a Congress MP’s home and they were saying that enquiries should not take place.
“If they want to say that actions have not been initiated against BJP leaders they can always file a case in the court. During the UPA rule, we filed 42 such PILs and the Congress government was forced to file cases against its leaders due to court orders,” he said.
CITIZENSHIP AMENDMENT ACT
Commenting on the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, Shah said that the Muslims of India need not fear.
He said that after the passage of the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, 2019 (CAA), misconceptions were spread nationwide.
“During that time, pandemic broke out. We are a democratic organisation. When such misconceptions are being spread, the party in power has the responsibility to reach out to the public with the facts.
Opposition spread the rumour to consolidate the vote bank by misleading our Muslim brothers and sisters that their citizenship would be lost. In reality, no one is going to lose citizenship due to CAA but rather it is a law to give citizenship. The Muslims of this nation need not fear,” the Home Minister said.
He said that all the stalwarts of the Congress promised to give citizenship to Hindus, Sikhs, Jains, Buddhists, Parsis, and Christians.
“But the Congress did not fulfil this promise but we did. It is a sort of implementation of the Nehru-Liaqat pact. But Rahul Gandhi has nothing to do with these historical documents. He is rather used to speaking and reading some chits,” Shah said.
CUSTOM OF RIGHTS, TRADITIONS, OBCS
He said that the custom of rights of a group as per its population had been followed even today.
“But Rahul Gandhi has no right to speak on this. The Congress suppressed Kakasaheb Karlelekar’s report for 30 years. The same was done to the Mandal Commission report. Rajiv Gandhi even opposed the Mandal Commission report and spoke against OBC reservation for 1 hour in the Parliament. But PM Modi gave the OBCs constitutional recognition. Now they talk about the number of OBC secretaries. But they do not see the 27 OBC ministers in the Modi cabinet and the PM is also an OBC,” the Home Minister said.
He said that the Congress neither knows about India’s traditions nor does it have respect for the traditions.
“In our tradition, the Matri Shakti has been considered the biggest power. No blessing can be bigger than a mother’s blessing and no affection can be bigger than a sister’s affection. They do not know what they are saying. The Matri Shakti of this nation is standing like a rock with PM Modi. Rahul Gandhi’s words cannot affect that. As far as the feedback I have received from the ground women from across the nation have decided to introduce Rahul Gandhi to the power of Matri Shakti,” Shah said.
“I also want to appeal to the women of our nation that after the independence of the nation, PM Modi gave the women 33 percent reservation in the Lok Sabha and the state assemblies fulfilling their long-standing aspiration to make them participants in the policy and law-making platforms.”
He said that if Arvind Kejriwal and Mamata Banerjee were so concerned about the jobs of youth then why do they not speak about the Bangladeshi and Rohingya infiltrators?
“It is because it hurts their vote banks,” the Home Minister said. “When the regime changed in Afghanistan many Sikh brothers and sisters came to India with the holy Guru Granth Sahib. Are they infiltrators? Every Sikh brother and sister has the same rights as we do in this nation. All Hindu brothers and sisters have the same rights as us. It is wrong to name them infiltrators. As far as the question of jobs is concerned they are already in India. Where does the question of additional load arise?”
He said that it was the right of the nation to decide who was to be given citizenship.
“It is the promise to our citizens that during the Modi government, no one can take a single inch of land. There is no virus of National Register of Citizens (NRC) in CAA, minorities need not fear,” Shah said. “Opposition is spreading confusion about CAA. Why is it silent on Bangladeshi infiltrators and Rohingyas?”
He said that the concept of NRC was introduced by proposing the National Population Register (NPR). But in the CAA there is no provision for the NRC.
UNIFORM CIVIL CODE
“In a non-sectarian nation, the law should be equal for everyone. There is no doubt about it. The Uniform Civil Code (UCC) has been our demand since its inception. It is our promise to the people of this nation and it was envisioned by the makers of our constitution,” the Home Minister said.
“The Muslims have not been living as per the Sharia since 1937. When the British introduced the Muslim Personal Law then why did they remove the criminal part? As per this law, no Muslim can have a savings bank account, cannot take interest, cannot take a loan, the hands of a thief have to be slashed, and a rapist had to be stoned to death.
Does Rahul Gandhi want to bring all these laws back? If one has to live according to Sharia then all the provisions in it should be followed. Why Sharia is remembered only to have four marriages. The narrative about Sharia is nothing but the vote bank politics of the Congress and the Muslims need to get rid of it.”
WON’T ALLOW COUNTRY’S 2ND DIVISION
He said that the Congress had not alienated itself from a leader’s statement that the nation had to be divided into two.
“Now the BJP is in power and the nation cannot be divided into two once again by the Congress,” Shah said.
TARGET 370
About the possibility of BJP winning 370 seats in the upcoming Lok Sabha elections, he said, “You will get to know on the counting day from where we get 370 seats. We have ample space to increase our seats in West Bengal, Odisha, Tamil Nadu, Telangana, and also in Punjab. We are going to increase our seats in Odisha both in Lok Sabha and assembly polls. We have given 16 seats to Nitish Kumar as per the negotiation with our local unit in Bihar.
We have acquired the role of the elder brother with more seats this time around. We are going to win more than 41 seats in Maharashtra. Uddhab Thackeray’s blind affection for his son has caused the split in Shiv Sena and the split in NCP was caused by Sharad Pawar’s affection for his daughter. We want all the members of the NDA to stay together. But we also need to keep in mind the honour of our Karyakartas and the right share of the party.”
SOUTHERN WAVE
The Home Minister said that the eruption of enthusiasm to welcome PM Modi in South India was highly encouraging.
“I am sure that in all the five states of South India our position will be further consolidated and our number will increase,” he said.
WEST BENGAL AND WOMEN POWER
About the election in West Bengal, Shah said: “We will win at least 25 seats in Bengal and we will emerge as the biggest party in Bengal. The people of West Bengal are not raising questions about the money that has been recovered from a minister. People are questioning Didi about where the money came from. The money belonged to the poor people.
The welfare schemes of PM Modi have not reached the people because Didi is afraid that they will enhance PM Modi’s popularity. Their rice has been sold to black marketers, they are not getting free healthcare, drinking water schemes are not being implemented there well, and they have been kept away from the benefits of the CAA for the sake of vote bank politics. Mamata Banerjee has been exposed.
The way women have been treated by party leaders in Sandesh Khali during a woman chief minister’s tenure. These leaders have been arrested only after a high court order. I appeal to the sisters and mothers of Bengal to introduce Mamata Banerjee to the power of Matri Shakti along with Rahul Gandhi.”
UP SHOW
He said that in Uttar Pradesh, BJP would show the best performance till now.
RAM MANDIR AND PUBLIC MEMORY
The Home Minister said that the BJP’s Palampur Executive resolved to build the Ram Temple democratically.
“PM Modi ended the 500-year-old task in 5 years with the court’s verdict,” he said.
Shah said that the visual of the consecration of the Ram Temple would remain in public memory for 10,000 years.
“It is an example of our nation which waited for 75 years for the court verdict to build the temple,” he said.
MHA DELIVERS
The Home Minister said that peace in Kashmir, the return of more than 9000 insurgents in the Northeast due to more than nine peace treaties, ending left-wing extremism, reining in narcotics with all harshness, and strengthening disaster management under the leadership of PM Modi had been done by the Ministry of Home Affairs.
“All the ministries have performed their best in the last 10 years after independence,” Shah said.
NEP 2020
He said that a New Education Policy 2020 had been introduced in the country.
STRONG MESSAGE
The Home Minister said that the country had become secure by sending a strong message through surgical and airstrikes.