Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi hails Modi as he enters 20th year as elected govt head

As PM Modi entered his 20th year in public office, Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi said his tenure as the head of an elected government has been a "crown of thorns", but "good governance" remained the hallmark

As Prime Minister Narendra Modi entered his 20th year in public office, Union Minister Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi on Wednesday said his tenure as the head of an elected government has been a "crown of thorns", but "good governance" remained the hallmark of his rule whether in state or at the Centre.

In a blog marking Modi's entry into his 20th year in public office -- first as Gujarat chief minister and then prime minister, Naqvi said the journey has been one marked with "good governance" and it replaced the politics of "circumambulation of power corridors'.

As the head of an elected government, Prime Minister Modi's tenure has been nothing less than a "crown of thorns, the Union minority affairs minister said.

Prime Minister Modi's good governance has naturally perturbed all those who considered circumambulation in corridors of power" as their only strength and passport to success for the last several decades, Naqvi said in an apparent swipe at the Congress.

During his two decades in government and public life, earlier as Gujarat chief minister and now as prime minister, Modi has proved his credibility as a strong leader committed to the welfare of every section of the society, Naqvi said in the blog titled 'Narendra Modi Ji's 20 glorious years of good governance'.

When parts of Gujarat such as Bhuj, Kutch, Bharuch, Anzar, Gandhinagar, Rajkot etc. were devastated by the January 2001 earthquake, as the then chief minister, Modi led from the front to tackle the challenges of one of the worst earthquakes in history, the minister said.

Modi made every person of the state feel that their leader was with them in the hour of crisis, Naqvi said.

Now, when people from other countries visit these areas of Gujarat, they are surprised by the development that took place in less than a decade in these areas, he said.

There are no signs of devastation and today these places are considered to be one of the best in the world, Naqvi said. When in January 2020, discussion on the coronavirus was at a very initial stage, Prime Minister Modi had started working on effective roadmaps to deal with the possible problem, he said.

"The World Health Organisation had declared coronavirus a pandemic on 11th March 2020. But two weeks before that, India had started screening people coming by international flights at the airports," Naqvi said.

In recent months, India along with almost all other nations of the world has been going through an unprecedented crisis resulting from the coronavirus pandemic and like a true leader, Prime Minister Modi has led the fight against this pandemic from the front, he said.

Apart from battling the coronavirus crisis, the Modi government also continues to bring in historic and path breaking reforms in socio-economic-educational fields, administration, trade, labour, defence, coal, civil aviation, power distribution, space, forest land, agriculture, communication, banking and investment, Naqvi said.

Record number of more than 1,500 unnecessary laws have been scrapped and far reaching steps taken such as abolishing triple talaq, allowing of Muslim women to perform Haj without Mehram, scrapping of Article 370, proactive steps for the development of Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh and resolving of the centuries old Ram Mandir issue, he said in the blog.

Several BJP leaders on Wednesday heaped praise on Modi and his leadership as he entered his 20th year without a break as the head of an elected government, including close to 13 years as chief minister of Gujarat.

Modi, who turned 70 last month, started as an RSS volunteer and then served in the BJP's organisation for many years before the party leadership sent him to Gujarat, his home state, as its chief minister in 2001.

Since then, he has never tasted electoral defeat and led the BJP to power in the state three straight times before steering the party to its biggest, until then, Lok Sabha poll win in 2014 and then scripting an even bigger win in the 2019 general elections.