Bangalore, Nov 17 (IANS) Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi Sunday urged the youth to oust the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government in the next general elections.
“The nation has decided. Now, it is your turn to end the UPA rule, end corruption to bring clean governance and root out poison to have nectar,” Modi specifically told the youth at a rally on the sprawling Palace grounds here.
Recalling the 90-year freedom struggle from 1857 to 1947, which led to independence, Modi said the dream of transforming independence (swaraj) to prosperity (suraj) remained unfulfilled as the Congress, in power for more than five decades, did not bother about the welfare of the people and the country’s future.
“By telling people that power was poison, one party ruled the country for long and kept the people away from the government for the sake of one family,” Modi thundered, alluring to the Congress and the Nehru-Gandhi family.
Referring to soaring prices, high inflation, growing unemployment and mounting corruption, the Gujarat chief minister said the UPA government had ripped the people layer-by-layer by failing to bring down prices, especially that of onions and potatoes.
“It is time to bring down the UPA government in state after state in the coming general elections. Prices of essential commodities remained stable during the NDA (National Democratic Alliance) government of Atal Bihari Vajpayee. The Congress-led government has failed to amend the Essential Commodities Act and restructure the Food Corporation of India to check price rise and prevent hoarding,” Modi said in chaste Hindi during his hour-long address.
Lauding the contribution of the IT sector and its thousands of techies in this tech hub, he said Bangalore was a developed city even before independence as it was the first city to get power in the country.
“I congratulate the IT industry and its software engineers for making Bangalore a knowledge city and famous the world over,” he said.
Crediting Vajpayee with bringing the IT revolution in the country, Modi said it was the NDA government that brought the IT Act in 2000 and Bangalore flourished since then after a separate ministry for the IT sector was created by the former prime minister.
“Only the vision of two former prime ministers, Lal Bahadur Shastri and Vajpayee, can take the nation ahead. Shastri gave the slogan ‘Jai Jawan, Jai Kisan’ (hail youth, hail farmer) and Vajpayee added one more and gave the slogan ‘Jai Jawan, Jai Kisan, Jai Vigyan’ (hail youth, hail farmer, hail science),” Modi recalled.
Noting that the UPA government did not believe in democracy and freedom of expression, Modi said attempt was being made to muzzle the social media network.
“The information and broadcasting ministry had taken exception to TV channels for comparing the prime minister’s Independence Day speech with my speech on the same day from Kutch in Gujarat.
The ministry’s “advisory” that the prime minister’s Independence Day speech should not be compared with other speeches was more a “threat” to the media, Modi cautioned the people.
On the declining value of the rupee against foreign currencies, Modi said: “There is a race between the Congress and the rupee on which one will go down faster.”
“One reason for the growing current account deficit (CAD) is that India’s software exports have declined drastically during the UPA-rule, while comparing it with the NDA rule,” he recalled.
Modi also charged the UPA with neglecting IT, science, technology sectors while promoting “meat exports because of which India’s cattle are being slaughtered”.
He began the speech by greeting people of Karnataka in Kannada and congratulating C.N.R. Rao and cricketer Sachin Tendulkar on being awarded Bharat Ratna.
State BJP president Prahlad Joshi presented a cheque of Rs.35 lakh to Modi for the construction of the Sardar Patel statue planned in Gujarat.
The amount was collected from 350,000 party workers who paid Rs.10 each to attend the rally, Joshi said.