It’s the journey of ‘Nav Bharat’

While the nation is gearing up to celebrate its 75 th year of Independence, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had, a few days ago, called on the people to make the next 25 years, i.e when India will hit a century of Independence, glorious with new thresholds, aspirations and dreams and resolve to build a strong, prosperous and self-reliant nation. Indians are reaping the fruits of the planned and determined efforts made by the Modi government in the last few years to build a strong, prosperous and a self-reliant India. India’s journey in the last 8 years has been amazing. Right from ensuring that the poor and the underprivileged receive the benefits from the various government schemes and thus bringing them into the mainstream of development to conducting air strikes and thus warning the forces, trying to create unrest in India, to mend their ways and not undermine the country. And hence owing to all this, it is believed that India will truly emerge as a self-sufficient, prosperous and a self-reliant nation. This is nothing but an overview of what the Modi government has done in the last 8 years….

Let us recall the days before Modi government came to power in 2014. The Pakistan supported terrorism was at its peak and terrorist attacks were rampant during the period from 2004 to 2014. During this decade, there were series of bomb blasts across places and thousands of innocent lives were lost. Also, the terror attack in Mumbai on November 26, 2008 by a handful of Pakistani militants clearly underlined how deep terrorism had got rooted in our country. Terrorist attacks had increased to an extent that doubts could be raised if any government system even existed in the country. There were rampant attacks and strikes by the Pakistani Army near the Line of Control, killing and beheading the Indian soldiers. It was during this time that the then Pakistani Prime Minister had the audacity to publicly humiliate the then Indian Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh. Even China had not missed the opportunity to infiltrate India. It was during the tenure of the United Progressive Alliance government led by Dr. Manmohan Singh when China had grabbed 38,000 square kilo meters of land from India. This fact was admitted by the United Progressive Alliance government in its reply to a question in the Rajya Sabha. In a reply to a question asked by BJP MP YS Choudhary, the then minister of state for Foreign Affairs E. Ahmed had confessed it. After the Modi government came to power, China’s intrusion was dealt with in a befitting manner. In June 2020, when the Chinese Army in Ladakh had launched an attack on the Indian Army, the latter retaliated in the similar manner. The Chinese Army had not expected such resistance from the Indian soldiers. In fact, China, after the 2017 Dokhlam incident of Bhutan, had sensed that there would be major political changes in India after the Modi government came to power. The Indian Army had stopped China’s Red Army from indulging in construction activities in Bhutan’s Dokhlam area. The surgical strike of 2016 and the Balakot air strike of 2019 had taught a good lesson to the Pakistani military and the government who were actively supporting the terrorist activities in India.

The entire world was stunned to see this constantly evolving changed India. India has never advocated aggression in the international arena. It has always retained its tolerant attitude against the aggression and intrusions by its neighbouring countries. The Modi government gave a befitting reply in a language understood by these neighbouring nations and re-introduced a strong India to the world. Now the enemy nations will think 100 times before indulging in any such acts.

While creating a protective shield around the country, the Modi government worked towards making the intelligence system strong and efficient and thus curbed the domestic terrorist activities. Between 2014 and 2022, i.e during the tenure of the Modi government, except for the three incidents of terrorist attacks – the Pathankot airbase attack on January 2, 2016, the Uri attack in Kashmir in September 2016 and the Pulwama attack in 2019, our security forces were successful in curbing the activities of Pakistan-sponsored terrorists. The Modi government succeeded in creating an image of a strong and vigilant nation.

The Modi government has, in the last eight years, taken certain decisive steps to protect the country from both internal and external threats whilst making India a wealthy and prosperous nation. These efforts are slowly reaping the benefits. This has reflected in the record growth of the country’s exports. India’s exports in the month of June 2022 were 64.91 billion dollars which was almost 23 per cent more as compared to 2021. Through the various government initiatives like Startup India, Make In India and Atmanirbhar Bharat, the government tried to encourage the youth and other enterprising companies to research, develop, manufacture and assemble products within India. The initiative also created a conducive environment for investments to help develop modern and efficient infrastructure and to open up new sectors for foreign investments.

A couple of years ago, India had to import products to manufacture toys. China accounted for the largest (80 per cent) share in toy imports. Owing to the planned efforts of the Modi government, this import of toys reduced by almost 70 per cent whereas the export of toys made in India increased by 61 per cent. The Indian toy market was largely dominated by cheap Chinese toys. This hegemony was broken by the effective implementation of the Make In India initiative. Today, India’s toy exports have reached USD 326 billion in 2021-22.

Also, India’s export of agricultural products has reached a record high of $ 50 billion in 2021-22. These export figures are for the first ten months of the financial year i.e from April 2021 to January 2022. Last year, India’s export of agricultural products was $ 32.66 billion during this same period. Export of wheat has reached 70 lakh tonnes. India’s rice export in 2021-22 has reached a whopping 210 lakh tonnes which is expected to reach 230 lakh tonnes in 2022-23. Also, the Kisan Railway, that has been started for fast transportation of agricultural goods within the country, is gaining momentum. All these efforts are leading to increased incomes of the farmers.

The Modi government has also launched several schemes like the Ujwala Yojana, the Matru Vandana, the Jan Dhan Yojana, Ayushman Bharat Yojana, Janaushadhi Pariyojana to make quality generic medicines available at affordable prices to all, POSHAN Abhiyan and the Pradhan Mantri Awaas Yojana. Due to the Jan Dhan Yojana, the government subsidies were directly deposited in the bank accounts of the deprived and the needy. Through the Ayushman Bharat Yojana introduced to provide medical aid to the poor and underprivileged, nearly 3.28 crore people have been benefitted from the scheme so far. To ensure that the underprivileged receive the benefit from this scheme, the Ayushman cards have been distributed to over 18 crore people. Also, nearly 8,694 Pradhan

Mantri Janaushadhi Kendras have been started across the country to provide medicines to the poor at affordable rates.

In order to ensure that the poor do not starve to death during the lockdown imposed to tackle Corona pandemic, 5 kgs of wheat, rice and pulses were distributed free to over 80 crore people through the Garib Kalyan Yojana. Through this Yojana, till March 2022, nearly 759 lakh metric tonnes of food grains were distributed to 80 crore beneficiaries in the country. The Modi government has, so far, spent more than Rs 3 lakh crore on this scheme. During the lockdown, businesses of various street vendors and small shop owners were closed down for several months. The Modi government offered a helping hand by sanctioning them loans at lower interest rates for their working capital. Over 29 lakh people have availed the benefit of the self-financing scheme. By increasing the ethanol content in fuel to 10 per cent, it has greatly benefitted the sugarcane growing farmers as well. The Modi government has also strengthened the road infrastructure in the country by giving priority to the construction of expressways, national highways, roads and bridges.

In short, the Modi government, in the last 8 years, has been successful in laying the foundation of a prosperous, self-sufficient and a powerful India. It cannot be claimed that the government has achieved all its objectives, but one can definitely appreciate the fact that the nation is slowly progressing towards achieving the goal of becoming a prosperous nation.

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