New Delhi
Tribals continued to hold centrestage of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s speech for the second consecutive day on Thursday as he replied to the Motion of Thanks to the President’s address in the Rajya Sabha.
A day after he hit out at Congress leader Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury in Lok Sabha for “insulting” President Droupadi Murmu (with his ‘rashtrapatni remark), Modi singled out Congress for his attack in the Upper House saying, “Had Congress worked with good intentions for tribals, I would not have to work so hard in the third decade of 21st century. Congress created hurdles in development. India lost six decades while smaller countries progressed.”
Accusing the main opposition party of indulging in appeasement politics, Modi made a big announcement by pledging “to achieve saturation levels in schemes to benefit everyone during ‘Azadi Ka Amrit Kaal’”. This is true secularism, he asserted.
Prime Minister Modi said 100% saturation in all schemes will put an end to all kind of appeasement. True secularism is making sure that the benefits of different government schemes reach all eligible beneficiaries, he stressed.
“For decades, the development of tribal communities was neglected. The Congress only engaged in ‘tokenism’ and never tried to find permanent solutions to problems confronting the country. We gave top priority to their welfare. People of the country are repeatedly rejecting Congress. People are watching them and punishing them. The country is with us,” Prime Minister Modi maintained.
Speaking about what his Government did for the tribal community, Modi said, “We identified 110 aspiration districts in the country. Education, infra, and health have improved in these districts due to continued focus and performance review. This has benefitted more than 3 crore tribals.”
“They (Congress) used to say ‘Gareebi Hatao’ but did nothing for over 4 decades. While we work hard to meet the expectations and aspirations of the people of the country,” Modi said.
With Opposition sloganeering and demanding a JPC probe into the Adani controversy, the PM said the more ‘keechad’ you throw at us, the lotus will bloom even more.
Tribals will play a key role in deciding the fate of parties in the Assembly polls in 13 States in the next year and a half leading to the 2024 Lok Sabha elections. As many as 404 Assembly seats reserved for Scheduled Tribes and 47 ST Lok Sabha seats will be up for grabs.
