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Prime Minister Narendra Modi, in an interview to news agency UNI on Monday, said unequivocally no discrimination or violence against minorities in India would be tolerated.
Agreeing some statements made by elements in his party were “totally uncalled for”, he said, “We stand for every one of the 1.25 billion Indians regardless of caste or creed and will work for the progress of every one of them. Every faith in our country has equal rights. It is equal not only before the law but also before society.”
Although Modi has made such statements before, this is the first time he baldly said he neither endorsed nor approved of elements in his party who were spreading hatred along communal lines. There was no mention of pseudo-secularism, no jibes at those who speak for the rights of minorities.
Focus clear
Modi’s statement comes days after his government celebrated a year of being in office, in Mathura. He did not mention the liberation of the Krishna Janmabhumi temple there even once, despite the town celebrating itself as the land of Krishna. “My government’s focus has been on governance and development. Our focal point is clear: vikas (development), vikas, vikas; jobs, jobs, jobs,” he said.
On the perception that the government was pro-corporate, anti-farmer and anti-poor, Modi was pithy. “Those who gave away precious natural resources like coal and spectrum to their favourite industrialists have no right to say this. Everyone knows where the country stands after 60 years of Congress rule. They have been sustaining their politics only in the name of the poor. But what have they actually done? Poverty is still widespread in the country. You should ask them: If you were pro-poor, why does poverty still exist in India?”
He listed all the steps his government had taken to lift India out of poverty: the Jan Dhan scheme that opened bank accounts for 140 million people, becoming the largest such exercise in the world; the Universal Account Number for workers so that they can avail their provident fund benefits and a monthly pension scheme of Rs 1,000 for them; launch of the Micro Units Development and Refinance Agency Bank for financing 60 million small vendors and businesses, 61 per cent of which are from Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes, Other Backward Classes or minorities; the use of technology to prevent leakage in cooking gas subsidy and scholarships; coal auctions that channelised Rs 3 lakh crore to poorer states; and schemes for poor children and toilets in all schools.
From an overall perspective, he said: “Large-scale corruption at various levels of government gave rise to scams on a regular basis. Our precious natural resources were going into the hands of a chosen few. In contrast, there are neither any charges of corruption against my government nor any scandals. We have given a clean, transparent and [an] efficient government. The findings of some surveys published by the media show that people have largely appreciated the work that we have done in our first year.”
Land Bill
A day after he said the passage of the land Bill was not a matter of life and death, Modi underlined how important it was to get it passed.
“In this country, the land acquisition Act was almost 120 years old. The Congress-led governments used the same Act after Independence. Suddenly, before the last parliamentary elections, the Congress went to the other extreme by legislating an Act that is neither in the interest of farmers nor in the interest of the country's development. At that time, we supported the Bill, thinking that if it benefits the farmers, let us not come in the way. However, there were shortcomings in it. After we took over, many state governments, chief ministers and public representatives made representations against various provisions of the 2013 Act. Tell me, in a federal system, should we have ignored concerns voiced by states? Through our amendments, we have only tried to correct anomalies pointed out by states, which were increasing red tape. While doing so, we protected the compensation payable to farmers.”
Modi stuck to his earlier argument: that it would be impossible to take urban facilities to rural areas unless land was made available to house these facilities. “The world is changing fast. Even farmers need canals to irrigate, roads to transfer products from farms to markets. They need hospitals, schools and houses. This is what the Bill strives to do, while safeguarding the interests of farmers,” he said. He said discussion with political parties would be initiated for consensus.
Modi defended the Jan Dhan Yojana and denied there was any trade-off between bad loans and inclusive banking. “The problem of NPAs (non-performing assets) in banks is not new. It is definitely not due to the Jan Dhan accounts. It has been there even before Jan Dhan Yojana was launched. In fact, my experience is that a poor person seldom defaults [on] a bank loan. This is a question of management efficiency of the banks. I have focused on that. I have personally spoken to bankers and we are committed to giving them full functional efficiency,” he said.
He added Jan Dhan accounts were not “high-volume, low-value” — on the contrary, these have got more than Rs 15,000 crore in deposits. “Moreover, we are channelising all government payments through these accounts. Hence, they will become operational in the real sense.”
Agrarian crisis
On the agricultural crisis and the charge that the key sector of economy had not received as much attention as it deserved or had been left at the mercy of corporate sector, Modi rebutted vigorously saying: “We have responded to the recent agrarian crisis with alacrity. We have undertaken steps on the ground as well as at the level of policy reforms. The Union government has enhanced the relief norms for compensation against crop loss by 50 per cent. The limit of minimum crop damage, for grant of compensation, has been reduced from 50 per cent to 33 per cent. Norms have been relaxed to allow procurement of damaged food grains at MSP (minimum support prices) rates. The target of agricultural credit has been enhanced in our two consecutive Budgets,” he said.
He added, “We need to recognise that the problem in agriculture is endemic and decades of mismanagement have led to the present situation. We have started long-term steps for the farm sector. Unlike the previous government, we were successful in defending the interests of the farmers at the WTO (World Trade Organization). To address the issue of access to irrigation for every farm and efficient utilisation of water, the Pradhan Mantri Krishi Sinchayee Yojana has been started. We have launched the soil health card scheme. The price stabilisation fund with a corpus of Rs 500 crore has also been set up for perishable commodities.”
Modi was guarded about commenting on India’s relations with China and said President Xi Jinping and he were of one mind on resolving the border conflict.
On ‘acche din’
On the arrival of ‘acche din’, he said: “The country was passing through such a bad phase that every day a new scam was unfolding. The government was stunned and the nation was desperate and disappointed. If you can recall that bad phase, misdeeds and wrong doings, you will feel that the country got rid of ‘bure din’ (bad phase). Now, I leave it for you to decide how you view our success in bringing the country out of that bad phase.” Citing inflation data and low prices, Modi said it was the critics who were trying to belittle and tarnish the government’s performance.
