Addressing his first rally after the consecration of Ram Temple, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday said that after pran pratishtha, it is time to focus on augmenting rashtra pratishtha, or national prestige. (Pran pratishtha refers to the consecration ritual for an idol, but the word pratishtha can also be literally translated as ‘dignity’ or ‘prestige’.)
Speaking in western Uttar Pradesh’s Bulandshahr region, Mr. Modi underlined his government’s development agenda, while rolling out projects worth ₹19,100 crore. Commenting on media reports that suggested that the PM would blow the poll bugle at the massive rally, Mr. Modi said, “I believe in blowing the bugle of development for the last man in the row. I don’t need to sound the poll bugle, my janta janardan [public] does it for me.”
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The PM said that people believed in Modi’s guarantee that development schemes will reach every citizen without any discrimination. “You are my family, your dream is my resolution,” he said, to generous applause. Mr. Modi also took note of the large number of women that turned out for the rally despite inclement weather and household work.
U.P. development critical
Without the rapid development of Uttar Pradesh, he added, the country could not achieve the target of being a developed nation by 2047. He claimed that, during the rule of previous governments, development was limited to select pockets in the country. “It was because previous governments worked with a ruler’s attitude and tried to divide people. U.P. has suffered because of this approach,” he said.
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Due to the foggy weather, Mr. Modi travelled from Delhi to Bulandshahr from by road, covering a distance of around 90 km. The city holds a special significance in the PM’s political career, as he started his 2014 campaign from the constituency that was nurtured for the BJP by party stalwart and former U.P. Chief Minister Kalyan Singh. A day after Karpoori Thakur was posthumously bestowed with a Bharat Ratna, Mr. Modi once again reached out to the non-Yadav other backward classes (OBCs) by invoking Mr. Singh’s contribution to the Ram Temple movement and to governance in U.P.
In the 2019 Lok Sabha election, the party faced a tough challenge in the western region of the State, losing six seats and wnning three others by a narrow margin. This time, too, the alliance of the Samajwadi Party, Rashtriya Lok Dal, and Azad Samaj Party — which is still negotiating with the Congress — could pose a stiff test for the BJP.
Employment generation hub
Earlier, Mr. Modi highlighted the upcoming Jewar International Airport, the Integrated Industrial Township at Greater Noida, several national highway projects, the defence corridor, and the NAMO Rail project, which he said have turned U.P. into an employment generation hub.
Speaking in the sugarcane belt, Mr. Modi described small farmers as the strength of the nation. He enumerated the ‘double-engine’ government’s schemes for improving their income and living conditions, including the growing network of cold storage facilities, a dedicated freight corridor, the introduction of nano urea, and drone didis. He also thanked the U.P. Government for increasing the State Approved Price (SAP) of sugarcane for the ongoing harvest season.
Earlier, the PM inaugurated a 173 km-long double-line electrified section of the dedicated frieght corridor between New Khurja and New Rewari, as well as Indian Oil’s Tundla-Gawaria pipeline. He was accompanied at the event by U.P. CM Yogi Adityanath and State BJP president Bhupendra Chaudhary.
