Poor, women, youth & farmers top 4 castes: PM Narendra Modi on Opposition's census push

Aditi Tandon

New Delhi, November 30

In a major counter to the Congress-led Opposition’s caste census push ahead of the 2024 General Elections, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday declared the poor, youth, women and farmers as India’s top castes, declaring that he won’t rest till he empowers each of the four.

If these grow, entire nation will develop

Advertisement

For me, these four segments are the top castes in the country. If these four castes develop, the entire country will develop. Narendra Modi, PM

---

Arrives in Dubai for World Climate Summit

• PM Modi on Thursday called for supporting developing countries with financing and technology transfer to enable them to deal with climate change as he arrived in Dubai to attend the World Climate Action Summit on Friday
• He said the COP28 would provide an opportunity to review progress made under the Paris Agreement

“The pledge of developed India stands on four pillars — poor, youth, women and farmers. For me, these four segments are the top castes in the country. For me the biggest caste is the poor, the women, the youth, the farmers. If these four castes develop, the entire country will develop,” the Prime Minister said today during a virtual interaction with the beneficiaries of Vikshit Bharat Yatra, a month-long pan-India government outreach aimed at saturation of official schemes. On Thursday, 15 days of the campaign concluded, with 12,000 village panchayats covered so far.

Boosting the government outreach, the ruling BJP is also working across villages with an aim to take the

information regarding Central government schemes to 2.55 lakh panchayats.

BJP president JP Nadda today addressed a party event asking workers to engage every citizen left behind in the race and ensure 100 per cent coverage of the poor by government schemes.

In his interaction today, the PM said people had unprecedented trust in the BJP government because the government is working to empower the poor.

“In the past, governments treated themselves like Mai-Baaps (be all) which was why a vast segment of people remained deprived of even basic facilities like roads, housing, electricity, water, gas connections. There was a time when you needed a middle man even to get documents attested, people were unable to open bank accounts. People had lost all hope,” said the PM. In a veiled attack on the Congress, Modi said erstwhile governments were concerned only with “their politics and vote banks.”

“Their policies were also dictated by the exigencies of appeasement politics. But I have to empower every poor, every woman, every farmer and every youth no matter what their caste is,” he said.

Terming the ongoing yatra as “Modi’s guarantee vehicle”, the PM said so far 30 lakh people had been covered by the outreach, had asked questions and filled forms to avail of government benefits. Modi’s guarantee begins where expectations from others end, the PM said.