Addressing a massive crowd of supporters at the BJP’s Parivartan rally at Sujanpur Tira in Himachal Pradesh, on the afternoon of 16th February, Shri Narendra Modi spoke about issues plaguing the State and the sky-high arrogance of the Congress that had ruined the Nation.
Seeking support from the people of Himachal for the BJP, Shri Modi said, “NDA is forming the next government and our agenda is National Development Alliance.” He urged the people to vote for the BJP and show their support for ‘Development Politics’ instead of ‘Divisive Politics’.
Expressing his disapproval of the sky-high arrogance of the Congress party, and their unwillingness to answer the people of India over the plaguing issues of inflation, corruption and unemployment, Shri Modi said, “Congress leaders are going across the nation talking about greats of the past but what about price rise. They are not willing to tell the people that we were unable to bring down prices despite promising to.”
Condemning the approach of the Congress which considered politics as a career and a business, Shri Modi spoke of how the BJP was only concerned with Rashtrabhakti and service. “There is nothing like membership in the BJP. We have a relationship of blood and a relation for generations,” said Shri Modi.
Speaking about the preference of the Congress to do ‘zeher ki kheti’ Shri Modi said, “The Nation knows very well who is doing the Zeher Ki Kheti,” while adding about the hatred of the Congress government towards the BJP, and the tactics they adopt to pull the BJP down. “One day a Kerala leader praised me, he was removed, a minister from Kerala met me he was taken to task. This politics of hatred and untouchability is not good for a democracy. Congress is a dynastic party and this is the opposite of being a democratic party,” said Shri Modi, while stressing on how Sonia Gandhi ji’s questioned the essence of Shri Modi’s initiative of the Statue of Unity, but was ready to fight the next election on the aspect of Unity.
Stressing on the need to tackle the vice of corruption, Shri Modi said that to free the Nation from corruption, we needed to free the Nation from the corrupt. He retorted to the Prime Minister’s statement of ‘money not growing on trees’ by citing the example of the Himachal CM, who belonged to the Congress party. “Leader of Congress and HP CM, his assets have risen 14 times and this was written in his affidavit. The PM says money does not grow on trees but your own CM became 14 times richer after money from trees,” said Shri Modi.
He further went on to add how each of the Telecom ministers under the Congress government were embroiled in some scam or charge of corruption. “Till when will the Congress keep saving itself? The root cause of corruption in this nation is the Congress party. If Congressmen are not corrupt then what is their worry in getting black money back,” asked Shri Modi, while stating that how the black money stashed abroad actually belonged to the people of India and how they had been looted by the corrupt Congress government.
Shri Modi said that he himself strongly opposed corruption. “And for whom should I be corrupt. I have nothing. This mind and body is totally devoted to the nation,” he added.
He asked the people of Himachal if they had any faith in the ruling Congress government, and if not, why were they still tolerating them. “Governments need the trust of the people to function. This is perhaps the first government which is not trusted by the people,” said Shri Modi.
Citing the grievances of the farmers of Himachal, Shri Modi spoke of how they were paid the full value of their apple produce during the rule of Shri Atal Bihari Vajpayee, and how under the Congress government, they were being exploited by not being given their due. Shri Modi spoke of how a paradigm shift was needed in the Nation’s development journey, and how the decision-makers need to change their perspective of looking at things. “Solutions in one place cannot be used in other places. We need to understand issues and then solve them. By calling CM meets and asking CMs to speak for 10 minutes will not help. The Prime Minister must come to the Himayalan states and sit with the CMs,” said Shri Modi.
Highlighting the immense scope of tourism in a country like India, Shri Modi spoke of how rail connectivity was an important contributor to the growth of tourism. Stating that Himachal had sadly been left out on this front, especially due to the lack of visionary leaders in the Delhi government, Shri Modi called for the need to lay due emphasis on this aspect. Speaking about environment concerns Shri Modi said that under Shri Dhumal ji’s rule Himachal had got many awards for being environment-friendly but that was a thing of the past.
Addressing the rally, Shri Modi spoke of his special association with Himachal Pradesh during the years he did organizational work in the State. He said how he got an opportunity to visit the State each time Shri Vajpayee ji came here, and how he had gone to serve Gujarat as the Chief Minister after serving the people of Himachal as a BJP karyakarta.
Shri Modi duly acknowledged the contribution of the youth from Himachal in serving the Nation by saying that it was only because they were awake on the borders of India that India could sleep peacefully. He added that the BJP party leaders were witness to the dedication of the soldiers to serve the Nation, especially during the Kargil war, but also shared his displeasure to the fact that inspite of such devotion and fearlessness of the Indian soldier, India was being bullied by other nations.
Shri Modi put forth the BJP’s emphasis on ensuring the growth and progress of everyone who had been left out of the development journey, and assured the people of bringing change in a span of merely 60 months.
BJP leaders present on the occasion included BJP President Shri Rajnath Singh, Former Himachal Pradesh CM Shri Prem Kumar Dhumal, Former CM of Himachal Pradesh Shri Shanta Kumar, Shri Anurag Thakur and Shri JP Nadda.
