Prime Minister Narendra Modi urged BJP leaders to alert citizens about attempts being made to trigger controversies on the basis of language and asserted that the saffron party considers all Indian languages the soul of “Bharatiyata” (Indianness) and worthy of reverence.
In his virtual address to a meeting of the party office-bearers in Jaipur on Friday, Modi said it is the BJP that has linked India’s cultural and linguistic diversity with national pride.
“Giving priority to local languages in the National Education Policy manifests our commitment to all regional languages. The BJP considers Indian languages the soul of Bharatiyata and the link to a better future for the country,” he said.
“I want to mention this especially because attempts have been made in the recent past to create new controversies on the basis of language. We have to constantly alert the people of the country about this,” the Prime Minister said.
He asserted that the BJP sees a reflection of the Indian culture in every Indian language. It considers every Indian language worthy of reverence, Modi added. His remarks came amid allegations by several regional parties, mostly from south India, that the Modi Government is trying to give primacy to Hindi at the cost of regional languages.
Welfare schemes: The Prime Minister also stressed on the need for reaching a “saturation” point in implementation of welfare schemes of his government.
The saturation point, he said must not only be a statistical aim. “When we talk about saturation, our aim must be to free the country from the clutches of discrimination, nepotism, appeasement and corruption,” he said.
Modi’s comments assume importance in the backdrop of the narrative floated by the BJP on how it was the labarathis class created due to the welfare schemes of the union government that won the party Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections twice in a row.
Modi said that he had laid down this aim during his last Independence Day address when he spoke about reaching out to hundred per cent “labharthis” or beneficiaries. This is a difficult target, he said, considering the size of the country and many schemes are dependent on the State governments.
Despite all this, if we commit to reach to every labarathi and finish the possibility of not leaving even a single beneficiary behind, then we shall achieve the aim. “Like we reach every home during an election, we should take the welfare schemes to every house,” he said. It was time for the BJP to set targets for the next 25 years, he said.
His speech also comes just days before his government completes eight years and at a time when the Mandir-Masjid debate has been reignited with the ongoing Gyanvapi case. Ducking this debate entirely, Modi instead spoke about developmental politics. He credited the BJP for main-streaming this narrative as opposed to others seeking “shortcut” to power.
The BJP’s meeting in Jaipur comes just a week after the Congress held Chintan Shivir at Udaipur in the State. Mr. Modi’s more than 45-minute address did not directly name any Opposition party. For their selfish interests, the parties look for small tensions and weaknesses in the society to pour poison into them, Mr. Modi alleged, adding they incite people sometimes in the name of caste or regionalism.
He further said that to save democracy, people have to make it value-based. “We have to continuously fight dynastic, family politics,” he said, adding “we have to stick to issues of development and national interest”.
The Prime Minister also asserted that dynastic politics is very dangerous for democracy and said that parivarvaad (dynastic) parties always depend on parivaar (family).
“If democracy is to be saved, it has to be empowered. Democracy has to be made value-oriented, then we have to fight relentlessly against this dynasty and family politics,” Modi added.
He also warned the BJP workers to stay away from the parties, which are based on family politics and said they have damaged the country and lost valuable time.