Hitting out at previous Congress-led governments, Bharatiya Janata Party national president J.P. Nadda on Wednesday said that prior to the advent of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, India’s political culture was one of hollow speeches, shallow promises and emotive, vote-bank politics without any focus on development.
Ahead of the Goa Assembly election, Mr. Nadda released a report card highlighting the achievements during 10 years of the BJP’s rule in the coastal State and flagged off the saffron party’s Sankalp Rath Yatra from the Goan capital Panjim.
“There has been a complete change in our working culture owing to Prime Minister Modi’s leadership… before 2014, India’s political culture was just about making shallow promises, hollow speeches and playing emotive, vote-bank politics… earlier, political parties and leaders played at championing certain sections of society and forgot all about them once they secured votes and concentrated on filling their pockets and those of their families,” said Mr. Nadda.
The BJP president claimed that earlier governments did not do anything for people and asserted that before the BJP-led governments under Atal Bihari Vajpayee and Mr. Modi, India was always ranked as one of the most corrupt nations in the world.
“But today, when Mr. Modi speaks on international issues, the world listens whether be it at the Glasgow COP26 summit or anywhere else,” Mr. Nadda said, claiming that India’s internal prestige had been restored under the Modi government.
With the election to the 40-seat Goa Assembly barely two months away, all major players – the Mamata Banerjee-led Trinamool Congress, Arvind Kejriwal’s Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and the Congress have upped the ante in targeting the ruling Pramod Sawant-led BJP government by accusing it of being corrupt and a comprehensive failure on all fronts.
In riposte, Mr. Nadda claimed that the BJP was the party to introduce the concept of a ‘report card’ in Goa.
“Have you ever heard of this concept of report card before? Politicians from other parties merely claim they did this or that without enumerating what they did in detail…but the BJP has been talking about infrastructure, better connectivity and our government has said in great detail what we have accomplished and where we would want to go from here. We are doing this by taking people’s suggestions,” he said.
Highlighting the work being done by the BJP government in bringing the ambitious (and long-pending) Zuari bridge project to completion, and the establishment of seven-super speciality hospitals in Goa, Mr. Nadda said that communication in the State had improved dramatically and that people did not need to go to Mumbai or Bangalore or any other metropolitan city for treatment.
“The BJP government, first under the late Manohar Parrikar and now under Pramod Sawant, has taken a big leap. We are not stopping but moving forward with people’s suggestions,” he said.
