Defence Minister Rajnath Singh has blamed the Congress and the DMK as being responsible for the sufferings of Tamil Nadu fishermen and Eelam Tamils.
The Congress and the DMK are responsible for the sufferings of Tamil Nadu fishermen and Eelam Tamils, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh has said.
He was addressing an election rally in Tiruvarur on Monday to canvass votes for M. Ramesh Govind, the party’s nominee for the Nagapattinam Lok Sabha constituency.
The diplomatic relationship forged by the Narendra Modi government with Sri Lanka had brought great relief to the fishermen community. Earlier, several fishermen had been arrested by the Sri Lankan government, some of whom had even lost their lives, Mr. Singh said.
Both the Congress and the DMK had done a great injustice to the fishermen of the State by ceding Katchatheevu to Sri Lanka, he said.
Mr. Singh said that while other parties were busy with family politics, the nation came first for the BJP. “This is the reason for the importance given to transforming the younger generation into job creators. The startup movement has resulted in the formation of more than 1.25 lakh startups in the country,” the Minister said.
Terming the Congress and the DMK ‘anti-women’, given their stand on the Women’s Reservation Bill and their alleged belittling of Hindu Goddesses in public fora, Mr. Singh exhorted women to teach the DMK and its alliance partners a lesson.
Campaigning for the BJP candidate for the Tenkasi Parliamentary constituency, B. John Pandian, in Rajapalayam, he said that gone were the days when India used to be a weak country.
“As the Defence Minister, I can say that under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, India has become a powerful nation. Any country that showed aggression will get a fitting reply,” he said.
India had made a big leap on the economic front in the Modi regime, and had become the 5th largest economy in the world, from being ranked 11th in the past, he said.
International organisations had predicted that India would grow stronger and become the world’s third biggest economy by 2027, the Minister said.
‘Superpower by 2047’
However, Mr. Modi had taken a vow to make India a developed nation and a superpower by 2047, he said, and sought votes for the party’s candidate to realise the goal.
Earlier, the Defence Minister conducted a road show covering a distance of 1.5 km in Rajapalayam town. He was accompanied by Mr. Pandian.
In Namakkal, the Defence Minister held a roadshow while campaigning for the party’s Namakkal candidate, K.P. Ramalingam.
Speaking among the public, Mr. Singh said that India would become a superpower by 2047 and the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) would win over 400 seats in the Lok Sabha election.
The people should see how India was being respected across the world now, under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, he said.
Mr. Modi had addressed all the issues that the Congress had failed to in the last 70 years, he said. “In 2019, the NDA won 340 seats, and in this election, we are confident of winning more than 400 seats,” Mr. Singh said.
The BJP had promised to build a Ram Temple and abrogate Article 370, and the party had fulfilled it. As promised, the Citizenship (Amendment) Act had been implemented, and it was not against any religion, Mr. Singh said. The BJP abolished triple talaq for the welfare of Muslim women. The BJP government was also providing houses for the poor and building toilets under the Swachh Bharat mission, he added.
Pointing to the growth of the ‘Make in India’ initiative, the Defence Minister said that earlier, firearms and ammunition used to be imported, and now, India was manufacturing them.
