Global conspiracy will not succeed against India: PM
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday visited two states headed for elections this summer, alleging in Assam an international “conspiracy” to defame Indian tea while accusing West Bengal’s ruling Trinamool Congress (TMC) of keeping silent on plots to “malign” the country’s image at a rally in Haldia. In Bengal, Modi said plans “aimed at hurting” India’s global image will be foiled.
KOLKATA/GUWAHATI: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday visited two states headed for elections this summer, alleging in Assam an international “conspiracy” to defame Indian tea while accusing West Bengal’s ruling Trinamool Congress (TMC) of keeping silent on plots to “malign” the country’s image at a rally in Haldia.
In Bengal too, Modi referred to plans “aimed at hurting” India’s global image associated with tea and yoga, asserted that the country will foil such “conspiracies”, and also launched multiple road and gas projects worth about ₹5,000 crore. In Assam, he inaugurated an ambitious road network project, laid the foundation of two medical colleges, and backed at least one medical college and a technical institution in each state that will impart education in the local language.
“I would like to mention conspiracies that are being hatched against the country these days. In order to malign the country, the conspirators have stooped to such a level that they are not even sparing Indian tea,” Modi said in his address at Dhekiajuli in Assam, a major producer of the brew. Though he did not elaborate, his comments came in the backdrop of Swedish environmentalist Greta Thunberg tweeting a controversial toolkit --- then deleting it and reposting an updated version -- in support of the ongoing farmers’ protest. One of the points reportedly mentioned there was to “disrupt yoga and chai image of India in general”, according to news agency PTI. India says the toolkit, or the document calling for greater mobilisation of the farmers’ agitation, is linked to a pro-Khalistani group. Also, a few years ago, NGO Greenpeace claimed in a report alleged overuse of pesticides in the Indian tea industry. “I want to tell these conspirators from Assam’s soil that the country will never allow their plans to be successful. Our tea workers will win this fight as these attacks are not capable of countering the hard work of our tea workers,” he said in his second visit to Assam in a fortnight. Modi accused opposition parties in the northeastern state of being silent on the issue.
Modi also launched the Asom Mala project -- modelled on the lines of Bharat Mala -- aimed at improving 890km of state highways. The medical colleges inaugurated by him at Biswanath and Charaideo districts -- to be constructed at a cost of ₹1,122 crore -- each will have 100 MBBS seats and 500-bed hospitals. “I have a dream that each state should have a medical and technical college where education is imparted in the mother tongue of the region. Our government in Assam will set up such colleges,” he said.
Assembly elections in Assam and Bengal are due in April-May. While Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is aiming a second straight term in Assam, it has launched an aggressive campaign to oust chief minister Mamata Banerjee’s government in Bengal. Modi arrived in Kolkata at 3:15pm and took off for Haldia in East Midnapore district in a chopper. In Haldia, he addressed a BJP rally and dedicated to the nation an LPG (liquefied petroleum gas) import terminal built by the Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited.
It has been set up at an investment of around ₹1,100 crore and has a production capacity of 1 million tonnes a year.