At the inauguration of the 15th Pravasi Bharatiya Divas at Varanasi today, Prime Minister Narendra Modi took a dig at Former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi’s infamous remark that only 15 paise of Re 1 reach people. He also slammed Congress for doing nothing throughout their regime to stop the leakage.
“You would remember the remark by one of our farmer prime minter on corruption. He had asserted that whatever amount Centre government sends to its people, only 15% gets reach to recipients and 85% gets disappeared.” PM Modi said. “The remark was a confession about the plight that country was suffering from” He added.
He then slammed Congress for its inability to solve the issue. PM Modi said that even decades after former PM’s remark, the governments did nothing to solve the issue and the 85% loot continued, and on the other hand the common man continued paying taxes. He then contrasted the UPA years with his government’s efforts towards plugging the leak.
PM Modi said that so far, Rs 5 lakh 80 thousand crores have been transferred to bank accounts of citizens, for schemes related to housing, scholarship and gas cylinders.
“If the 85% loot had continued in this government, nearly 4 lakh 50 thousand crores would have disappeared without reaching the common citizen” He added. PM Modi also said that by the implementation of Direct Benefit Transfer, nearly 7 crore ghost beneficiaries have been weeded out of the system.
The event was attended by Miniter of External Affairs Sushma Swaraj, Governor of Uttar Pradesh Ram Naik, and Chief Miniter of the state Yogi Afditynath.
The chief guest at the convention was PM of Mauritius Pravind Jugnauth, who delivered his speech in Hindi. He praised PM Modi and his schemes like Skill India and the Beti Bachao Beti Padhao. He announced his decision to organise a Bhagwad Gita Mahotsav next month and a Bhojpuri Festival next year.
In addition to this, nearly 5000 delegates from the overseas Indian community were also present.
The convention was earlier slated to be organised on 9 January. But, it was delayed so as to grant opportunity to delegates to attend the Kumbh Mela going on in Praygraj, and also later attend the Republic Day Rally in Delhi. The idea behind the event was proposed by Former Prime Miniter Atal Bihari Vajpayee and is held every two years.
PM Modi also lauded the Non-Residential Indians and said that they are the country’s ambassadors in the world. He also said that his government is working hard to ease the norms for passport and visa for the foreign nationals. PM Modi also emphasised on the importance of solar energy and talked about the concept of “One World, One Sun, One Grid”.
