Trust of 140 crore Indians my safety shield which your lies and accusations can't destroy: PM Modi to Cong in Lok Sabha

Tribune News Service

Aditi Tandon

New Delhi, February 8

Narendra Modi is a member of every Indian family and the trust of 140 crore Indians is his safety shield which your lies and accusations cannot destroy, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said to the Congress in Lok Sabha a day after Rahul Gandhi accused the government of aiding industralist Gautam Adani’s rise, charges the BJP trashed as baseless.

Speaking amid chants of ‘Modi, Modi’ and a frequent cheering by the Treasury benches, the prime minister said crores of poor and deprived beneficiaries of government schemes will never trust allegations and lies of the Opposition.

Attacking the Congress for “compulsive rather than constructive criticism”, the PM referred to UPA’s 2004 to 2014 as a “lost decade” and contrasted it with 2030 which, he said, will be India’s decade as the “world looks at India with hope and trust and sees its own prosperity in that of India’s.”

Describing the Congress and its leaders (without naming anyone directly) as “people steeped in negativity”, the PM said India was a happy society brimming with hope, a land that “tolerates but does not accept negativity.”

In a veiled jibe at Rahul Gandhi who yesterday said Harvard Business School should study the India model of government and business tango, the PM said, “Harvard has done one study which has been completed. It is titled - The rise and decline of India’s Congress Party. Harvard and many other universities are sure to study the continuing decline of Congress and those who caused it.”

Noting that people ridden with despondency can’t tolerate resurgent India, the PM said “For 22 years you have remained victims of the misunderstanding that you can destroy Modi with lies. Trust in Modi is not a creation of the media. It’s a result of daily slog in the service of the people. Your lies and accusations will have to cross the wall of 140 crore Indians to get to Modi. The trust of my people if my safety shield your accusations and falsehoods cannot break.”

The PM said the world today was looking at India with trust because of our “political stability, expanding opportunities and rising credibility.”

“A stable government and a decisive government commands its own trust. We will continue on the part of reforms out of conviction nor reforms out of compulsion,” the PM said attacking the UPA for converting every opportunity into adversity be it the 2010 Commonwealth Games, the 2G scam when technological revolution presented an opportunity and coal scam.

“The period from 2004 to 2014 was the period of maximum scams in independent India,” said the PM.

Listing the range of benefits the government schemes had accrued to people, Modi said the BJP government had for the first time fulfilled the aspirations of Dalits, tribals and backwards and also acknowledged the hard working middle class and its role in India’s rise.

The PM counted expansion of professional colleges, reduction in mobile data prices, subsidised medicines among major benefits to the middle class under his government.

Steering clear of the repeated interruptions by the opposition on the Adani issue, the PM asked the Congress, “Why will 80 crore poor who received free ration in Covid trust your lies? Why will 11 crore farmers who receive three annual instalments of PM Kisan Samaan trust your accusations?”

Accusing the Congress of failing when in government and now also as an opposition, the PM said “There’s a reason behind their despondency and negativity, the reason is people’s repeated mandate against them…those who ruled once have failed even as opposition while the country continues to pass with distinction.”

The PM speech saw a Congress walkout with BRS walking out ahead of his remarks.

Later the Lok Sabha passed the motion of thanks to President address with a voice vote.