Una (Himachal Pradesh): Upon the completion of nine years of Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led government at the centre, the Bharatiya Janata Party will be carrying out a number of public meetings to garner public support, Union Minister Anurag Thakur said on Sunday.
The Union Minister of Information, Broadcasting, Youth and Sports Affairs Anurag Singh Thakur felicitated the new president of Himachal Pradesh BJP Rajeev Bindal and Organisation General Secretary Siddharthan.
Speaking to reporters, Thakur said, "Modi government's nine years will be completed on May 30. On this occasion, BJP will be garnering people's support through public meetings. The state unit president will inform all the workers about the programs to be held in the next one month. Our Una MLA Satpal Satti ji was the state BJP president for the last nine years. We will continue to get his guidance as well. Our new organization minister Siddharthan ji has also arrived in Una today. We welcome and congratulate him too."
"Today every countryman feels that 'Modi hai to Mumkin hai'. If we can reach this far in 9 years, then imagine how far the country and Himachal can go in the next 5 years. In the next two years we are going to become the third largest economy of the world, so imagine what will happen after 5 years," he added.
Accusing the Congress party of doing "appeasement politics", the Union Minister said that the party had won state elections before the 2019 Lok Sabha elections as well, but couldn't match the results in the general elections.
"Those who have given nothing to the country except hatred, nepotism and the strategy of 'divide and rule' in their whole life, should not be talking about love and harmony. Congress has always done politics of appeasement. Even after ruling the country for 60-65 years, today they talk about 'rewadis'. Even before the 2019 general elections, the Congress had won in some states, but you all have seen what happened in 2019," Anurag Thakur said.
The BJP leader further accused Congress of "humiliating" BR Ambedkar and stated that he got the respect of PM Modi.
"The Congress party humiliated and tortured Babasaheb Ambedkar, who made India's constitution. It was Modi Ji who gave him his due respect after coming. His Panchtirth was developed in all five places; Nagpur, Mau, Mumbai, Delhi, and London. Our government also started celebrating November 26 as Constitution Day," he said.
Thakur added, "It was Modi ji who declared Babasaheb's birth anniversary as a holiday on April 14. Scholarships worth Rs 7000 crore have been given to Scheduled Tribes. From every scheme of the Modi government, SC, ST, backwards and minority families have benefited the most. Our basic mantra is Sabka Saath, Sabka Vikas and Sabka Vishwas."
The Union Minister, who is also an MP from Hamirpur in Himachal Pradesh, also highlighted the development in the road infrastructure leading to better commutes for the people.
"The road from Kiratpur to Sundernagar is 87 kms, which will be reduced to 57 kms. It takes over 3 hours today, but in a few days, it will only take 40 minutes. A total of 14 tunnels will be made in this. It used to take 7 hours to go from Kiratpur to Manali, but now it will only take 3 hours. We have also given a contract to widen the roads in Jalandhar," he said.
He added, "The Hamirpur-Dharampur-Mandi is also being widened at a cost of Rs 1200 crores. The road from Hamirpur to Bilaspur has also been widened at a cost of Rs 300 crore. The road from Mataur to Hamirpur-Bilaspur-Shimla which was more than 200 km will now get reduced to 180 kms, and instead of six hours now it will only take three hours".