Chennai (Tamil Nadu) [India], February 7 (ANI): Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) spokesperson C R Kesavan on Friday applauded Prime Minister Narendra Modi's "progressive politics of inclusive development," while condemning the Congress party for its "regressive politics of dynastic development."
Hitting out at the opposition party, Kesavan criticised the tenure of former Prime Ministers, Indira Gandhi and Jawaharlal Nehru, ruing the days of stifling individual enterprise, freedom of expression and a culture of corruption.
"The pernicious permit-licence-quota of the Nehru-Indira Gandhi days stifled individual enterprise, choked freedom, and fostered the culture of corruption. Does Kharge ji agree that Indira Gandhi was grievously wrong in amending the preamble of the Constitution to add the word 'socialist'?" he told ANI on Friday.
Comparing it to the current NDA-led union government, he said, "Prime Minister Narendra Modi practices progressive politics of inclusive development, but Congress harbours regressive politics of dynastic development. PM Narendra Modi has ushered in a women-centric, women-led development model, which has made our country the fastest growing and 5th largest economy in the world."
Kesavan also condemned Congress for practising a politics of religious appeasement, he accused the party of trying to take away the rights of Scheduled Caste (SC) and Scheduled Tribes (ST) communities.
"The Congress party, for their politics of religious appeasement, has tried to snatch away the rights of our SC, ST, and OBC communities as guaranteed by the Constitution, but Narendra Modi has empowered them," the BJP spokesperson said.
He further praised the Union government's initiatives such as 'Stand Up India' and the 'Mudra loan scheme.'
"Stand Up India has made SC, ST women entrepreneurs, and even the recent budget has provided collateral-free Rs2 crore loans to 5,00,000 first-time SC, ST entrepreneurs--this is revolutionary. The youth were completely lost and directionless during the Congress party's time. Now the Mudra Loan Scheme has made 8 crore youth first-time entrepreneurs," Kesavan told ANI.
Earlier, on Thursday, the Prime Minister, in his reply in Rajya Sabha to the motion of thanks to the President's address took repeated jibes at the Congress party for resorting to 'licence-quota raj" during their tenure.
"In the Congress model, the first thing is Family First". Their energy was spent on this," the PM said.
"Today, attempts are being made to spread caste poison in the society...For many years, OBC MPs from all parties have been demanding constitutional status for the OBC Panel. But their demand was rejected, as it might not have suited their (Congress) politics. But we gave constitutional status to this panel," he added.
The Prime Minister concluded his speech by stating that after 2014, India adopted an alternate model of governance, one that is "focused not on appeasement, but on satisfaction." (ANI)