Modi recounted BJP’s journey from its inception to the present, saying its leaders had gone through immense hardships and attempts at suppression from its opponents, especially Congress during the Emergency. He expressed his gratitude towards RSS for nurturing and protecting the party.
“There was a saying then, that a BJP worker’s one foot is in a train and the other in jail,” he said.
“BJP had passed a resolution for women’s reservation in 1994 at Vadodara. We also decided that we will promote more participation of women. After coming to power, we fulfilled our promise to bring women’s reservation law. We are now using all our strength to ensure that in 2029, elections are held with the Nari Vandan Adhiniyam in force,” Modi said.
He enumerated the achievements of BJP-led NDA government like abrogation of Article 370, fighting terrorism and Maoism effectively, ushering in GST, bringing in one nation-one ration card, one nation-one grid and a new education policy.
“Our mission continues. A serious discussion is taking place in the country on issues like uniform civil code and one nation-one election and there has been positive progress on them… Our target is to build a Viksit Bharat, Aatmanirbhar Bharat,” he said.
“We cannot forget the phase of 1984 when Congress had won record seats. But the people of the country were seeing how Congress was betraying them after getting power. Their trust in BJP went on increasing day by day and started winning elections. BJP’s rise led to formation of two streams of politics – one which was based on getting power and the other which was founded on serving the people,” Modi said, adding the former started declining and the other rose.The PM alleged that Congress focused on doing justice to only one family while committing grave injustice to others. Family and dynasty-based politics can be seen in many state-based parties, he added.
The PM said BJP workers have faced all kinds of challenges – from the Emergency to Congress conspiracies. Party workers have brought it to this high through their hard work and perseverance, he added. “In this journey many of our party workers had to lose their lives. We have seen in Kerala and West Bengal how violence has been made into a political culture. But BJP workers didn’t waver or get scared.”
