PM: Corruption, nepotism reined in like never before
Paris, Aug. 23: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday said the resounding mandate to the BJP in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls was for building a ‘new India’, and asserted that corruption, nepotism, loot of people’s money, and terrorism have been reined in like never before.
Addressing the Indian community at the Unesco headquarters here, Mr Modi also talked about “major decisions” such as banning of practice of triple talaq, taken by his government in its second term. In a veiled reference to abrogation of Article 370 in Jammu and Kashmir, Modi said, “there is no scope for temporary in India. You would have seen that a country of 1.25 billion people, the land of Mahatma Gandhi, Gautam Buddha, Ram, Krishna, took 70 years to remove what was temporary. To remove temporary it took 70 years, I don’t know ■
This mandate is not just to run the government, but it is for building a new India. — Narendra Modi, Prime Minister
whether I should laugh or cry...Reform, perform, and transform and with permanent systems, the country is moving forward to achieve its goal.”
Mr Modi, who was in France on the first leg of his three-nation tour, said there have been a number of constructive changes in the last five years.
He also asserted that “in ‘new India’, corruption, nepotism, dynasty, loot of people’s money, and terrorism have been reined in like never before.” Mr Modi’s comments on corruption assume significance as they come two days after the high-profile arrest of senior Congress leader and former Union finance minister P. Chidambaram by the CBI in a money laundering case, evoking a strong reaction from Opposition parties which accused the Centre of misusing probe agencies for “political vendetta”.