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Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday urged his party’s 180-odd first time Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha members to restore the faith of the people in the government and its institutions and to take his and his government’s message to the electorate.
Addressing a two-day training workshop of the newly elected 161 Lok Sabha and 18 Rajya Sabha members Modi advised them not to get disillusioned or deterred by minor issues, guard against negativism and not air their differences in public. Modi said there weren’t any full stops in politics. He inaugurated the workshop.
Sources said the PM is aware that his government would in the days to come have to fight a battle of perceptions, as it would need to take several tough decisions. It is here that he feels MPs could play a key role in building people’s trust in the government, its intent and its institutions. “A faith that people lost during 10 years of United Progressive Alliance (UPA) rule,” party sources said.
Attacking the Congress, the prime minister asked the party MPs to highlight the fact that the policies nurtured by the Congress in the last few decades have not been able to mitigate the suffering of the people and solve their problems. Parliamentary Affairs Minister M Venkaiah Naidu said the PM guided the MPs on how to “maintain standards in public life, how to take the message of good governance to the people, the message of the BJP and in turn of Modi to people”.
Modi, who addressed the ‘class’ first said he had also learnt from his seniors in the party.
According to sources in the meeting, the thrust of Modi’s speech was to inspire MPs to act as a bridge between the government, BJP organisation and the electorate. He appealed to them to be good ambassadors of the government and be careful about their aachaar (conduct), vichaar (speech and thought) and vyavahaar (behaviour).
The PM also asked MPs to stay away from corruption and nepotism, do proper homework in parliamentary debates, ensure brevity and focus in parliamentary speeches, work hard to help the party in Assembly elections and not speak out of turn to the media. He asked them to develop an expertise on at least one subject. According to sources, Modi said just as the party made the Lok Sabha and the central government nearly Congress-mukt (Congress-free), it should now repeat that in the Assembly elections.
“To be an MP is an important thing and one must look at it seriously. Remember, people are observing your performance in the
House and also outside. Our transition from Opposition to treasury is not limited to moving a few feet to the other side. This is a significant transition and we must try to appreciate the meaning of this,” Modi said.
The PM asked MPs to develop the spirit of team work. “We are a family and all are working for a common goal. Try to make new friends, learn from each other and develop a new collectivism,” he said. He said the training wasn’t a ritual that they should approach casually. Modi said such trainings had a long tradition in the BJP.
“Lack of training in political establishments is a serious lacuna, but unfortunately, many outside politics take efforts for human resources development very lightly and sometimes even try to ridicule such efforts,” he said. Party leaders said Modi had wanted to stay for a longer duration at the session but had to leave because of prior engagements.
Home Minister Rajnath Singh, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj and Naidu also addressed the MPs. The training session will end on Sunday with an address from party patriarch Lal Krishna Advani.
