BJP's prime minister-designate arrived by a helicopter at noon to a thunderous roar from a 1 lakh+ crowd. So loud was their cheer that he surely must have felt the excitement from his chopper. And if public response is anything to go by, he came, he spoke, he conquered.
The BJP’s PM-designate Narendra Modi ensured he struck a chord with the IT City’s tech savvy crowd. He claimed that the UPA’s bad governance was responsible for the decline in the country’s software exports, and consequently decline in job opportunities.
He said that during the tenure of National Democratic Alliance, the country’s software exports stood at 40%, adding that it came down to 30% under UPA I. He alleged that the export had stooped to a mere 9% under UPA II. He underlined that it was the NDA that had introduced the IT Act, given prominence to the IT sector. He said it was former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee who had set the ball rolling for Isro’s moon mission. Modi credited Vajpayee with framing the country’s policy in the field of science and technology a decade ago.
Modi chided the Congress for neglecting the country’s youth and failing to provide job opportunities. He said the Congress-led government was more interested in export of meat than it was in export of software. Labeling meat export as ‘pink revolution’, he alleged that the Congress has been doling out special packages for slaughter houses. He said many engineers in the country would have got jobs had the government focused on IT instead.
He further took on the Centre, flaying its policies and their implementation. He said the Centre had allocated Rs1,000 crore towards skill development, comparing it with Gujarat’s allocation of Rs800 crore towards the same cause. He said the prime minister’s national mission on skill development was a defunct body, which did nothing to create more jobs.
He claimed that he would see to it that the 21st century be remembered as the era of India. He said India has two distinct advantages that will make it possible: a vibrant democracy and a young population, what with 65% of it less than 30 years old.
‘Blame govt for high price of essential commodities’
Blaming the UPA government for the skyrocketing prices of essential commodities, said the government’s move in removing onions from the list of essential commodities was the reason for the rise in prices of the bulb.
“At Wankhede Stadium, as Sachin Tendulkar played his last cricket match, while most people were eager to see Sachin score 100, many were discussing how soon onion prices will hit a century,’’ he said, leading to titters among the crowd.
“I submitted a report suggesting to split the Food Corporation of India (FCI) into three divisions. One for procurement, the second to look after storage facilities and the third for distribution of food grains,” he said.
Coming down heavily on poor maintenance of railway infrastructure, he suggested that the government open dedicated universities in four different regions to provide manpower for railways. Alluding to the penchant of railway ministers to favour their constituencies in budgets, he said: “The Congress has railways a tool for political game.’’
On Union finance minister P Chidambaram’s comments on protests against hike in fuel price, he said: “Chidambaram questioned the people for protesting hike in fuel prices stating that people can spend Rs 15 to buy a Bisleri water bottle and Rs 20 for an ice cream but screams whenever the government increases fuel prices. What type of mentality is this?’’
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