Prime Minister Narendra Modi addressed Parliament for the first time on Wednesday and said that a country’s government should be for the poor.
“If we don’t run the government for the benefit of the poor people then the citizens of the country will not forgive us,” Modi said in reply to the motion of thanks on President’s address to the joint session of Parliament.
“We will empower the poor to enable them to fight poverty,” he said.
The Prime Minister said that education is the biggest tool to fight poverty.
India is a country of villages but have we really changed the lives of farmers or people in villages, Modi asked.
“But have we really managed to change the lives of the farmers or people living in villages?” he said.
He added that if villages are developed by providing continuous power supply, education and industries then no one will migrate.
The PM further said that it is high time the latest technologies are implemented in the agriculture sector. He lamented the fact that no research has taken place on pulses for the past several years.
Talking about the safety of women in the country, he said that everyone should respect them and that their safety should be everyone’s priority.
He further called on political leaders to stop the psychological evaluation of rape incidents, saying enough has been said and that it’s equivalent to playing with the dignity of the women.
Referring to rising prices of commodities, Modi said that the government will make all efforts to bring down inflation.
“We will make sure that no poor person in the country sleeps hungry,” he said.
Modi also spoke about the Himachal Pradesh mishap which claimed the lives of several students, the techie murder in Pune and the rising crime incidents in UP and termed all of them as “sad”. He stressed that the administration needs to be strengthened to prevent such incidents.
Referring to the debate on the Gujarat development model, Modi said that he considers the criticism as guidance and not criticism.
“I have heard that the Tamil Nadu model is better. Such debate should take place in a democracy and competition on models will lead to a healthy competition,” he said.
He added that irrespective of the party being in power, one must learn the positives from every model.
