Prime Minister Narendra Modi replies to the 'Motion of Thanks' on the President's address in Lok Sabha during the Budget session of Parliament.
Credit: PTI Photo
New Delhi: In what was a politically-charged speech during his reply in the Motion of Thanks debate, Prime Minister Narendra Modi asserted that in the upcoming Lok Sabha elections, the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance will cross 400 seats.
“I do not like to get into numbers, but ab ki baar (this time) … The NDA will definitely cross 400 seats, and the BJP alone will bag 370 seats,” Modi said, repeating an assertion that the BJP has been making for over a year now.
In what is supposed to be his last speech in the Parliament in this tenure, PM Modi in a speech that was nearly two hours long, narrowed his aim on the Congress party and the Gandhis in particular, while listing several achievements of his government in the last decade.
Starting his speech with a mention of the sengol procession, which he said increases the dignity of our democracy, Modi said that the Opposition has lost the will to fight. “I have heard that many of you are changing seats, and that some of you will be shifting to the Rajya Sabha soon,” Modi said, in a reference to buzz that Sonia Gandhi might opt for a Rajya Sabha seat. The prime ministry’s entry in the Lok Sabha was telecast by the state broadcasters, which was peppered with chants of “Modi, Modi”.
He also spoke of the Bharat Ratna to Karpoori Thakur, and said that the Congress mistreated him and denied him the position of the Leader of Opposition in his time. “Some leaders keep saying, how many OBCs are there in government jobs, but fail to see the biggest OBC face … they cannot see this OBC,” Modi asked, in a reference to an earlier speech by Rahul Gandhi in the Lok Sabha.
After his speech, in a post on X, Gandhi responded by saying that while the Prime Minister often says that there are only two castes in the country – rich and poor – but in Parliament he described himself as the ‘largest OBC’. “It is important to change this mentality of considering someone small and someone big. Be it OBC, Dalit or tribal, economic and social justice cannot be provided to them without counting them,” Gandhi’s post read.
Modi spoke of the four sections highlighted in the President’s speech – women, youth, poor and farmers. But when, from the Opposition benches, TMC MP Saugata Ray interjected him asking for what the government is doing with minorities, Modi shot back: “Maybe fishermen are not from the minority in your place, or animal herders, or farmers, or women. How long will you divide society?”
Modi then spoke of Congress’s dynastic politics. “Due to dynastic politics, Kharge ji had to shift to Rajya Sabha, and Ghulam Nabi ji had to shift his party,” the prime minister said. At this point, Congress MP Gaurav Gogoi interrupted the speech saying that BJP has dynastic politicians of their own.
Looking back at the interim Budget speech of 2014, PM Modi said former Finance Minister P Chidambaram spoke of a “vision for the future” of India becoming the 11th largest economy in the world. “They were happy being the 11 largest economy which we have already become the 5th largest,” Modi asserted.
Modi said that in his first term, his government worked to fill the gaps left by the previous government and in his second term, his government brought in the idea of ‘Naya Bharat’. “In the third term, we will build a developed India,” Modi said. He also accused the Congress of ‘cancel culture’ and said that Congress “cancelled” the government’s initiatives such as Make In India, Atmanirbhar Bharat, Vocal for Local, Vande Bharat, etc.