PM Modi targets Nehru-Gandhi legacy, slams them for considering people as 'problems'

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday launched a sharp attack on the Nehru-Gandhi family during an almost 100-minute-long speech, accusing them of viewing India’s population as “problems”, and slammed the opposition party’s approach towards governance.

He also accused the Gandhi family of “stealing” the surname of Mahatma Gandhi, alleging that stealing was their ancestral profession.

Replying to a discussion on the Motion of Thanks to the President’s address in the Rajya Sabha, Modi also ridiculed the Congress party’s work culture, and said it only indulges in imagining and did nothing towards implementation.

Citing a speech by former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi in Iran, Modi said she had recalled Jawaharlal Nehru describing the country’s 35 crore people as “problems”, and later herself equating the population of 57 crore as the same problem.

At that time, the population of our country was 35 crores, he said.

“She went on to say, today the population of our country is 57 crores. That is why the number of problems I have is also the same. My father used to think that a 35 crore population was a problem, and now the problem of the country is 57 crore,” Modi said.

He further questioned, “How can someone consider the population of her own country to be a problem? This is the difference between their thinking and our thinking.” The prime minister also ridiculed the Congress party’s work culture, recalling Indira Gandhi’s criticism of the Planning Commission over its refusal to provide mules for workers in Himachal Pradesh, while highlighting his own decision to abolish the body in 2014.

Taking a dig at the opposition party, he said, during the Nehru-Gandhi tenure it believed only in the “jeep” and “mule” culture, as he questioned the implementation of schemes. He cited that once Indira Gandhi had visited Himachal Pradesh, and the Planning Commission was not even ready to make a special scheme for hilly areas.

Quoting Indira Gandhi, Modi said, “I had gone to Himachal Pradesh. When I came back, I said to the Planning Commission that our workers don’t need jeeps; instead, they need mules to carry on their stuff.” However, she was told by the Planning Commission that she will pay for the jeeps only as “there is no policy to pay for the mules”. The Planning Commission said it would be either a jeep or nothing.

This was the work culture “in the long rule of Congress”, and even Indira herself knew that this “sin was going on, but she did not take any step to improve this work or culture.” His father was the founder of the Planning Commission, which she was criticising.

“Till 2014, everyone was sad, worried, looking at their mistakes, but, they were not ready to improve,” he said, adding that after becoming Prime Minister in 2014, he abolished the Planning Commission with the Policy Commission.

Over implementation, the prime minister further said, Congress can only imagine. Referring to the Narmada Dam project, Modi said a dam project was visualised by the late Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel before his birth. This dam project, whose foundation was laid by Jawaharlal Nehru, saw completion after he became prime minister.

He further said India has now put the Indus Water treaty under abeyence, which was signed by the Congress government.

Without taking the name of Rahul Gandhi, the prime minister said the Congress party never promoted the startup culture. “Their condition is such that they are not even able to lift their own home-based startup.” The prime minister also mentioned the banking sector reforms, and said the banks’ profits are on record high and their NPA is below one per cent. His government freed banks from the illness that had crept into the system and restored their financial health.

Taking a dig at the previous Congress governments, Modi said before 2014, there was a prevalent “phone banking culture” in which politicians would make calls to influence the disbursement of loans.

As a result, loans were often granted based on these calls rather than proper assessment, he said.

“The poor were frequently denied access to credit, and nearly 50 per cent of the population did not even have bank accounts. On the recommendation of Congress politicians, millions were lent to individuals who never repaid the money,” said Modi, adding that during the UPA era, this led the banking system to teeter on the brink of collapse.

Similarly PSUs are also having a record profit and some of them are now going global.

Modi further said the Congress government was “remote-controlled”, and his government is also controlled by remote. However, his remote is 1.4 billion citizens of the country.