New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday said the BJP government at the Centre was focusing on improving the lives of small farmers through various schemes and initiatives, even as he bitterly attacked the Congress, saying it continued to live in negativity and was not ready to leave the path of hatred even when a grand Ram temple had been inaugurated in Ayodhya.
Modi attacked the Congress over its comments about his caste and said the Opposition party had no agenda except abusing him, but this attitude will only strengthen the resolve to win more than 400 seats for the BJP-led NDA in the Lok Sabha polls.
Speaking at the Narendra Modi stadium in Motera, Ahmedabad, he referred to the BJP government's plan of creating 10,000 farmer producer organisations (FPOs), Modi said his administration was on a mission to turn small farmers into “agri entrepreneurs and exporters”.
The PM listed many schemes meant for farmers and village-dwellers, such as Micro ATMs, GOBARdhan scheme and Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samridhi Kendras.
“We are giving priority to each and every aspect of villages and our focus is on improving the lives of small farmers, on improving the health of livestock and how farmers get more income through allied activities such as fishing and bee-keeping. That is why we have decided to give Kisan credit cards to fishermen and cattle-rearers, too,” he said.
During his day-long visit to Gujarat, Modi travelled to Ahmedabad, Navsari, Mehsana and Surat and attended several events, including golden jubilee celebrations of Gujarat Cooperative Milk Marketing Federation (GCMMF), which markets daily products under the Amul brand, and inaugurated or laid foundation stones of a slew of projects.
He dedicated to the nation two new pressurised heavy water reactors (PHWRs) with a cumulative capacity of 1,400 MW at the Kakrapar Atomic Power Station (KAPS) in Surat district.
After inaugurating the Valinath Mahadev temple in Mehsana district, Modi said for a long time in independent India, the Congress created a conflict and enmity “between development and heritage.” ”If anyone is to be blamed for this, it is the same Congress which ruled the country for decades. These are the same people who made even a holy place like Somnath (temple) a cause of controversy,” he said.
The Congress did not even show the desire to hoist a religious flag at the Pavagadh temple in Panchmahal district, and for decades linked the Sun temple at Modhera with vote bank politics, he said.
“You have seen how Congress people abuse Modi's caste. But Congress people forget that the more abuses they hurl, the stronger will be the resolve to cross 400 (Lok Sabha seats),” he said at a public function at Navsari in south Gujarat during his day-long visit to the state.
Congress MP Rahul Gandhi recently sparked a controversy by saying, during his Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra in Odisha, that Modi was not born into an OBC family and belongs to the general category.
“The more mud they throw, the more gloriously 370 lotuses (BJP poll symbol) will bloom (referring to ruling party's target of winning 370 LS seats on its own). Except for abusing Modi, the Congress has no other agenda for the future of the country,” asserted the PM.
