PTi File Photo
Credit: PTI File Photo
New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi asserted on Wednesday that earlier people used to question why the CBI and the ED did not act against powerful people, while those powerful and corrupt are now asking why the agencies are acting against them.
Modi's apparent swipe at opposition leaders at News18 group's summit came amid their allegations that his government had been using probe agencies to target them.
He cited how massive hauls of cash were found from leaders belonging to parties like the Congress and the Trinamool Congress and said his government's tough action against corruption has rattled them into abusing him.
These abuses will not make any difference, he said, asserting that he gets blessings of the poor who have been receiving all the benefits meant for them, unlike in the past when a huge chunk of welfare money used to be siphoned off.
The government before 2014 was resorting to lies to defend its 'scams' but the situation has reversed now as his dispensation is taking tough action against the corrupt, he said.
It is his commitment to act against the corrupt, he said.
"The country has made up its mind," he said, referring to the slogan of 'Phir ek baar, Modi sarkar'.
Targeting the opposition, he said while his government is busy framing a road map for the next 25 years and plan for the first 100 days of its third term, the opposition has just heaped its '104th' abuse on him.
He cited opposition leaders' remarks threatening him and likening him to Mughal emperor Aurangzeb, seen by many as a zealot.
It is all happening while the elections are on and every Indian should be proud of this massive festival of democracy involving 97 crore voters, the prime minister said.
He said more than Rs 34 lakh crore has been transferred to the beneficiaries of numerous welfare schemes over the last 10 years, adding that most of the amount would have been pocketed by the corrupt under the previous government, a reference to the Congress-led UPA dispensation during 2004-14.
The next five years would be of 'unprecedented transformation, growth and expansion', he said, asserting that it is his guarantee.
While India was seen as an 'additional weight' on an overloaded flight till 2014, it is now a passenger without whom the global flight cannot take off and will become the pilot in the next five years, he asserted.
India has no reason to be behind any country and people have to work with the 'nation first' approach, he said, adding that it is this attitude which has powered India's rise.
He cited the huge growth in India's exports, forex reserves and other development indicators to make his point.