Arnab Goswami ji, all the colleagues of Republic Media Network, all the viewers of Republic TV in the country and abroad, ladies and gentlemen! Before I say something, I would like to tell you a joke which I heard in my childhood. There was a professor and his daughter committed suicide and left a note saying that she was tired of her life and did not want to live any more. She wrote that she would consume something and jump into the Kankaria Lake and die. The next morning, the professor found that his daughter was not at home. Her father went to her room and found a letter. He became very angry after reading the letter. He said, ‘I am Professor, I worked hard for so many years and still her spelling of Kankaria is wrongly written in the suicide letter.’ I am happy that Arnab has started speaking better Hindi. I did not hear what he said, but I was paying equal attention to whether his Hindi is correct or not. Perhaps, your Hindi has improved after living in Mumbai.
Friends,
I really enjoy being with you. Republic TV is completing six years next month. I would like to congratulate you for not letting your mission of Nation First waver. You persevered in spite of all kinds of hurdles and obstacles. Sometimes Arnab’s throat got sore and sometimes some people tried to catch hold of him by his throat, but the channel did not stop. Neither it was exhausted, nor paused.
Friends,
When I came to the Republic Summit in 2019, the theme at that time was ‘India’s Moment’. In the background of this theme was the mandate that we received from the people of the country. The people of India had formed a stable government for the second consecutive time with a thumping majority after several decades. The country was convinced that ‘India’s Moment’ had arrived. Today, after four years, the theme of your summit is ‘Time of Transformation’. That is, the trust behind that transformation is now visible on the ground.
Friends,
One way to measure the direction of change that is taking place in the country today is the pace of growth and expansion of the economy. It took almost 60 years for India to become a one trillion dollar economy. Sixty years! By 2014, we somehow managed to reach the two trillion dollar mark. That is a two trillion dollar economy in seven decades! But today, India is a country with an economy of about 3.5 trillion dollars in just nine years of the formation of our government. We made a quantum jump from number 10 to become the fifth largest economy in the world in the last nine years. And all this happened in the midst of the biggest crisis of 100 years. At a time when the world’s biggest economies were stuck, India not only came out of the crisis, but is moving forward at a fast pace.
Friends,
You must have often heard one thing from policy makers – First order impact. That is the first and natural result of any policy. First order impact is the first goal of the policy, and its impact is seen in a short time. But every policy also has second and third order impacts. Their impact is deep, far reaching, but it takes time to unfold. We have to go back several decades to do its comparative study, to understand in detail. The people of the world of TV run two windows – then and now. I am also going to do something similar today. So first let’s talk about the past.
Friends,
The government itself became the controller in the economic policy of license raj that was adopted after independence. Competition was abolished and the private industry and MSMEs were not allowed to flourish. The first negative effect of this was that we kept lagging behind in comparison to other countries and became poorer. The second order effect of those policies was even worse. India’s consumption growth remained very low as compared to the world. As a result, the manufacturing sector weakened and we lost investment opportunities. The third effect of this policy was that an atmosphere of innovation could not develop in India. In such a situation, neither more innovative enterprises were created, nor private jobs created. The youth started relying only on government jobs. Many talents of the country even decided to leave the country in the absence of the working environment. All these consequences were the result of the third order impact of the same government policies. The impact of those policies crushed the country’s capacity for innovation, hard work and enterprise.
Friends,
Now what I am going to tell you, the viewers of Republic TV will definitely like it. Whatever policy our government formulated after 2014, not only the initial benefits were taken care of, but second and third order effects were also given priority. You will recall that I mentioned giving houses to 1.5 crore families in five years under the PM Awas Yojana during the 2019 Republic Summit. Now this figure has jumped to more than 3.75 crore houses. The ownership rights of most of these houses are in the name of our mothers and sisters. And you know that today each house which is built is worth lakhs of rupees. Today I say with great satisfaction that crores of poor sisters have become ‘Lakhpati Didi’. Perhaps there can be no greater Raksha Bandhan than this! This is the first impact. The second impact of this was that lakhs of employment opportunities were created in villages under this scheme. And you know that when someone has a house of his own, a permanent house, then his confidence gets a boost and his risk-taking capacity also increases. His dreams start touching the sky. The PM Awas Yojana has raised the confidence of the country’s poor to a new height.
Friends,
Mudra Yojana has completed eight years just a few days ago. This scheme was launched to provide financial support to micro and small entrepreneurs. More than 40 crore loans have been disbursed under the Mudra scheme, of which about 70 per cent are women. The first effect of this scheme is in front of us in the form of an increase in self-employment. Be it Mudra Yojana, opening of Jan Dhan accounts of women or promotion of self-help groups, today we can see a big social change taking place in the country through these schemes. These schemes have established a strong role of women in the decision-making process of the family today. Now more and more women are becoming job creators and giving strength to the growing economy of the country.
Friends,
In the PM Svamitva Yojana also, you can see first, second and third order impact separately. Under this, property cards were given to the poor using the latest technology, which gave them the assurance of property security. One effect of this scheme can be seen on the drone sector where the demand and expansion possibilities are continuously increasing. It has been almost two to two-and-a-half years since the PM Svamitva Yojana was launched, not much time has passed, but its social impact is also visible. The possibility of mutual dispute has reduced after getting the property card. This will reduce the ever-increasing pressure on our police and judicial system. It has now become easier for those who have got property papers in the villages to get financial help from banks. The price of these properties in the villages has also increased.
Friends,
I have so many case studies of first order, second order and third order impact that your TV’s ‘rundown’ will be out of order and a lot of time will be spent in this. Be it DBT, plans to provide facilities like electricity, water, toilets to poor people, all these have brought a revolution at the ground level. These schemes have given even the poorest of the poor in the country a sense of respect and security. For the first time in the country, the poor have got security as well as dignity. Those who were made to realize for decades that they were a burden on the development of the country, today they are speeding up the development of the country. When the government launched these schemes, some people used to make fun of us. But today these schemes have given pace to India’s rapid development and have become the basis for building a developed India.
Friends,
Everyone from the poor, Dalit, deprived, backward, tribal, general class or middle class has been experiencing a visible change in their lives since the last nine years. Today the country is moving ahead with a very systematic approach and on mission mode. We have also changed the mindset of those in power. We have introduced the mindset of service. We have made the welfare of the poor our medium. Instead of appeasement, we have made satisfaction our base. This approach has created a defensive shield for the poor and middle class of the country. This protective shield has prevented the poor of the country from becoming poorer. Very few of you will know that the Ayushman Yojana has saved the poor of the country from spending 80,000 crore rupees which otherwise had to be spent from their pockets. If this scheme was not there, the poor would have had to spend the same amount from their own pocket. Imagine, we have saved so many poor people from becoming poorer. This is not the only scheme that comes in handy in times of crisis.
Rather, crores of families have also got the facilities of affordable medicines, free vaccinations, free dialysis, accident insurance and life insurance for the first time. The PM Garib Kalyan Anna Yojana is another protective shield for a large population of the country. This scheme did not allow any poor to sleep hungry during the Corona crisis. Today the government is spending four lakh crore rupees on this food scheme. Whether it is ‘One Nation One Ration Card’ or our ‘JAM Trinity’, all these are part of the protective shield. Today, the poorest of the poor are assured that they will definitely get what is due to them. And I believe that this is social justice in the true sense. There are many such schemes which have made a huge impact in reducing poverty in India. You must have seen the IMF report some time back. This report says that extreme poverty in India is on the verge of ending due to such schemes and despite the pandemic. This is transformation. What is transformation otherwise?
Friends,
You would recount I had identified MNREGA in Parliament as a monument of the failures of the Congress government. There were so many complaints about MNREGA before 2014. Our government conducted a study in this regard. The study revealed that the attendance of up to 30 days was being shown against one day’s work in several instances. In other words, someone else was pilfering the money. Who was losing? It was the poor and labourers who were losing. Even today, if you go to the villages and ask which project made under MNREGA before 2014 is still functioning, you will hardly find anything. Earlier, there was very little emphasis on Permanent Asset Development while spending money on MNREGA. We also changed this situation. We increased the budget of MNREGA as well as transparency. We started sending money directly to the bank accounts of the people and also created resources for the villages. After 2014, lakhs of pucca houses for the poor, wells, step wells, canals, animal sheds, etc. have been made under MNREGA. Today, most MNREGA payments are cleared within 15 days. Now the Aadhaar cards of more than 90 percent MNREGA workers have been linked. This has reduced forgery in job cards. And I’ll give you another statistic. About 40,000 crore rupees have been saved from going into the wrong hands due to fraud prevention in MNREGA. Now the MNREGA money is going to that poor labourer, who works hard and sheds his sweat. Our government has ended the injustice being meted to the poor.
Friends,
This journey of transformation is as contemporary as it is futuristic. Today we are preparing for many decades to come. Whatever technology came in the past, it reached India after several decades or years. India has also changed this trend in the last nine years. India started three tasks simultaneously. Firstly, we freed the sectors related to technology from the control of the government. Second, we insisted on developing technology in India according to India’s needs. Third, we adopted a mission mode approach on research and development for the technology of the future. Today you can see how fast 5G has been rolled out in the country. We have grown at the fastest pace in the world. The speed that India has shown regarding 5G, the way India has developed its own technology, is being discussed all over the world.
Friends,
No one can forget the issue of vaccines in the Corona era. The people with old thinking and approach doubted the need of ‘Made in India’ vaccines. Their common refrain was that other countries were developing the vaccines so they will give us the vaccines one day or the other. But even in times of crisis, India chose the path of self-reliance and the results are in front of us. And friends, today you are very happy. But imagine when we had to make the decision during that time. You put yourself in that position when the world was saying that take our vaccines, people were saying trouble is in store without vaccines and we will die. The editorials and TV debates were highlighting the dangers. They were clamouring to bring the vaccines. Friends, I had taken a big political capital risk only for my country. Otherwise, I could also say that I should use the treasury and import the vaccines. Vaccinate people once and advertise in newspapers and it will be over. But friends, we did not choose that path. We developed the world’s best and effective vaccines in a very short time. We quickly launched the world’s largest and most successful vaccine campaign. And you would recall that Covid started spreading in India in January-February and India had formed a task force for the vaccines by the month of May. We made plans in advance keeping in view the requirements of the future. And this was also the time when some people were engaged in renouncing the ‘Made in India’ vaccines. What kinds of words were used? I don’t know whose pressure was there? I don’t know what was the self-interest that these people were advocating for the import of foreign vaccines?
Friends,
Our Digital India campaign is also discussed worldwide today. Recently, I went to Bali for the G-20 Summit. There was hardly any country which did not try to know the details of Digital India from me. There was also an attempt to derail Digital India at one time. Earlier, the country was embroiled in the debate of data vs Atta (flour). And these TV media people enjoy it a lot, they put two words – you need data or Atta. What tricks they did not employ from the Parliament to the court in stopping the trinity of Jan Dhan-Aadhaar-Mobile. They would make fun of me when I used to tell the countrymen in 2016 that the bank would be on their fingertips. Some pseudo intellectuals used to ask me ‘Modi ji, tell me, how will the poor buy potatoes and tomatoes digitally?’ And what did these people say later? ‘Where are potatoes and tomatoes in the fortune of the poor?’ These are the kind of people. They even said that fairs are held in the villages, how will people make digital payments in the fairs? Today you see for yourself whether digital payments are happening in your Film City from the tea shop to the litti-chokha cart or not? Today India is among those countries where digital transactions take place the most, as compared to the world.
Friends,
You must be wondering why the government was doing so much work or whether people on the ground were also getting its benefits. Yet, there are some people who have problems with Modi. It is followed by the media. And today I want to tell the reasons for this to the viewers of Republic TV. The anger that is visible, the ruckus that is taking place, is because Modi has closed the avenues of black income for some people forever. Now there is no half-hearted or isolated approach in the fight against corruption. Now there is an integrated, institutionalised approach. This is our commitment. Now you tell me, will those whose tainted wealth is stopped abuse me or not? They also effuse poison in their writings.
You would be surprised to know that around 10 crore fake beneficiaries of government schemes have been thrown out due to JAM Trinity. The figure is not small, Sir. Ten crore fake beneficiaries have been thrown out. These 10 crore were the people who used to take the benefits of the government schemes. These 10 crore were those who were never even born but government money was being sent to them. You imagine the Congress government was sending money to such a large number of fake beneficiaries which was more than the combined population of Delhi, Punjab and Haryana. If our government had not delisted these 10 crore fake names from the system, the situation could have been far worse. It was not that easy to accomplish this feat, my friends. We had to give constitutional status to Aadhaar first. More than 45 crore Jan Dhan bank accounts were opened on mission mode. So far, 28 lakh crore rupees have been transferred to crores of beneficiaries through DBT. Direct Benefit Transfer means no middleman, no involvement of people making black money. DBT simply means end to commission and pilferage. This one arrangement led to transparency in dozens of schemes and programmes.
Friends,
Government procurement also used to be a major source of corruption in our country. There is now transformation in this too. Government procurement is now done entirely on GeM- i.e. Government e-Marketplace portal. Newspapers used to write excessively on problems related to tax problems. What did we do? We made the system faceless. Arrangements have been made that there should be no face to face between the tax officer and the taxpayer. The GST has also closed the avenues of black money. When there is honest work, it is natural for some people to have problems. And the ones who have problems, will they abuse the people on the streets? Friends, this is why these representatives of corruption are disturbed. They are hell bent to destroy the honest system of the country.
Friends,
If their fight was with only Modi, they would have succeeded long ago. But they are not able to succeed in their conspiracies because they do not know that they are fighting against the common Indian. No matter how big an alliance these corrupt people form, no matter all the corrupt people come on one platform, no matter all the dynasty members come at one place, but Modi is not going back. My fight against corruption and nepotism will continue my friends and I am a person who has taken a vow to free the country from these wrongdoings. I need your blessings.
Friends,
This ‘Amrit Kaal’ of independence belongs to the efforts of all of us. When the might and hard work of every Indian will be applied, we will be able to fulfil the dream of a developed India as soon as possible. I am sure that Republic Network will continue to strengthen this spirit and now that Arnab has said that he is going global, so India’s voice will get a new strength. My best wishes to him also. Now the number of countrymen who tread with honesty is increasing which is the guarantee of grand India. My countrymen are the guarantee of a grand India. I assure you that I believe in that. Once again, many thanks to all of you!
DISCLAIMER: This is the approximate translation of PM’s speech. Original speech was delivered in Hindi.
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DS/VJ/VK/AK
