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The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Tuesday fielded Power Minister Piyush Goyal, one of the more articulate ministers in the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government, to clarify that party president Amit Shah never said that it will take 25 years for his party-led government to deliver upon its promise of achhe din or better days.
Media reports had quoted Shah having told his party members in Bhopal on Monday that it will take 25 years for achhe din. Shah was in Bhopal as part of the BJP’s mahasampark or mass contact programme.
Goyal today slammed the media for having “twisted” parts of the speech of the party president so that both “words” and “essence” of what Shah said in Bhopal were projected “out of context”. “Some newspapers think they can print anything, give any kind of headline and publish incorrect news. This is not proper,” Goyal, minister of state (independent charge) for power, coal, new and renewable energy.
The minister said the meeting where Shah had purportedly made the statement was a “closed door meeting” in Bhopal. The BJP distributed what it claimed to be a copy of the verbatim speech of Shah as also showing a video clip from the meeting.
ALSO READ: 'Achhe din' for accused Amit Shah to Lalit Modi: Digvijay Singh
According to this, Shah said that a five year government cannot do much to make India the topmost country in the world. “I don’t mean to be an escapist or shirk responsibility when I say a five-year government cannot do much. We can indeed reduce inflation in five years. We can secure the borders our country in five years. We can re-draft our foreign policy and restore India’s pride and we can rid the country of unemployment,” Shah said.
He said five years were a short time to achieve the dream of making “Mother India” the vishwa guru or world leader. Shah, who recently completed a year in office, indicated that such a dream can be achieved if the BJP gets an unbroken control of the reins of power. “Just as the Congress controlled the entire governing structure from panchayats to Parliament after independence from 1950 to 1967,” Shah said.
“Similarly, the BJP will need to triumph in each election from panchayat to Parliament from now to the next 25 years and only then we will be able to accomplish our goal,” Shah said. The BJP President said he was convinced none would be able to defeat the BJP for the next 25 years if its 110 million committed members and its competent leadership works together. “Our future is victories and victories and nothing else,” he said and implored party workers to reach out to more and more people, inspire them and give them an ideological basis.
The BJP president has proven his mettle as a strategist who has delivered famous victories for the BJP. But he isn’t as adept at political messaging.
In the run-up to the Delhi assembly elections in February, Shah told a television channel how the BJP promise of depositing Rs 15 lakh in the bank account of every Indian by ensuring recovery of unaccounted money stashed abroad within 100 days of forming a government was nothing but a ‘chunavi jumla’ or electoral slogan.
ALSO READ: Congress takes BJP to task over Amit Shah's 'acche din' statement
Last week, he told a party meeting in West Bengal that they should focus on the 2019 elections. This was widely reported and seen as evidence that the BJP had already conceded defeat in the Bengal assembly polls of early 2016. The party’s Bengal unit later clarified that Shah had meant 2016 and not 2019. On Friday, Shah told a gathering of BJP’s OBC cell that Narendra Modi is the first OBC to become the prime minister of India. This led to howls of protests from several OBC leaders like Bihar CM Nitish Kumar and Lalu Prasad who pointed out that it wasn’t Modi but H D Deve Gowda was the first OBC PM of India.
However, Shah’s tweets led Congress leader Digvijaya Singh and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal to ridicule him. Singh said Shah’s better days had arrived as he has been given a clean chit in all court cases while people should forget about their good days. Kejriwal tweeted: “Would people have voted for BJP had it told them that it will take 25 years for good days to arrive?”
Media reports had quoted Shah having told his party members in Bhopal on Monday that it will take 25 years for achhe din. Shah was in Bhopal as part of the BJP’s mahasampark or mass contact programme.
Goyal today slammed the media for having “twisted” parts of the speech of the party president so that both “words” and “essence” of what Shah said in Bhopal were projected “out of context”. “Some newspapers think they can print anything, give any kind of headline and publish incorrect news. This is not proper,” Goyal, minister of state (independent charge) for power, coal, new and renewable energy.
The minister said the meeting where Shah had purportedly made the statement was a “closed door meeting” in Bhopal. The BJP distributed what it claimed to be a copy of the verbatim speech of Shah as also showing a video clip from the meeting.
ALSO READ: 'Achhe din' for accused Amit Shah to Lalit Modi: Digvijay Singh
According to this, Shah said that a five year government cannot do much to make India the topmost country in the world. “I don’t mean to be an escapist or shirk responsibility when I say a five-year government cannot do much. We can indeed reduce inflation in five years. We can secure the borders our country in five years. We can re-draft our foreign policy and restore India’s pride and we can rid the country of unemployment,” Shah said.
He said five years were a short time to achieve the dream of making “Mother India” the vishwa guru or world leader. Shah, who recently completed a year in office, indicated that such a dream can be achieved if the BJP gets an unbroken control of the reins of power. “Just as the Congress controlled the entire governing structure from panchayats to Parliament after independence from 1950 to 1967,” Shah said.
“Similarly, the BJP will need to triumph in each election from panchayat to Parliament from now to the next 25 years and only then we will be able to accomplish our goal,” Shah said. The BJP President said he was convinced none would be able to defeat the BJP for the next 25 years if its 110 million committed members and its competent leadership works together. “Our future is victories and victories and nothing else,” he said and implored party workers to reach out to more and more people, inspire them and give them an ideological basis.
The BJP president has proven his mettle as a strategist who has delivered famous victories for the BJP. But he isn’t as adept at political messaging.
In the run-up to the Delhi assembly elections in February, Shah told a television channel how the BJP promise of depositing Rs 15 lakh in the bank account of every Indian by ensuring recovery of unaccounted money stashed abroad within 100 days of forming a government was nothing but a ‘chunavi jumla’ or electoral slogan.
ALSO READ: Congress takes BJP to task over Amit Shah's 'acche din' statement
Last week, he told a party meeting in West Bengal that they should focus on the 2019 elections. This was widely reported and seen as evidence that the BJP had already conceded defeat in the Bengal assembly polls of early 2016. The party’s Bengal unit later clarified that Shah had meant 2016 and not 2019. On Friday, Shah told a gathering of BJP’s OBC cell that Narendra Modi is the first OBC to become the prime minister of India. This led to howls of protests from several OBC leaders like Bihar CM Nitish Kumar and Lalu Prasad who pointed out that it wasn’t Modi but H D Deve Gowda was the first OBC PM of India.
However, Shah’s tweets led Congress leader Digvijaya Singh and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal to ridicule him. Singh said Shah’s better days had arrived as he has been given a clean chit in all court cases while people should forget about their good days. Kejriwal tweeted: “Would people have voted for BJP had it told them that it will take 25 years for good days to arrive?”
