As the Narendra Modi government completes nine years and the 2024 Lok Sabha elections draw near, there are questions about how India has changed, the various achievements and what challenges remain. Union Minister Smriti Irani gave some concise answers in a special conversation with CNN-News18 on Wednesday. Edited excerpts:
On a day when the numbers read very positively for the women of our country – 1,020 women per 1,000 men, this is the data according to a book that has been launched to mark nine years of the Modi government – but your So, what has been perhaps the most important achievement in the last 9 years, as you have handled multiple ministries and you have been there since 2014?
I have had the greatest privilege of serving under a visionary Prime Minister who understands the needs of my country. That the education policy in my country did not see amendment for four decades speaks volumes about the apathy with which the Congress ruled and governed my country.
Today, I am very proud that the National Education Policy that has come out after four decades has a special Gender Inclusion Fund, thereby ensuring infrastructure for gender related education activities. I am very proud that as the then Education Minister, the Prime Minister blessed the first MOOCs platform to be built for our country and SWAYAM today has 1.75 crore students who receive low-cost higher education. I take great pride in the fact that India never had the national ranking framework that it has now, and that is why you see the ranking of higher education institutions in the world and the growth in Indian education. I am extremely proud that as the Textiles Minister, I was a firsthand witness to India’s self-reliance in the production of PPE suits.
Remember, in our country for 70 years we kept importing at least 50-55 thousand PPE suits in a year for the national requirement. And it was when there was a global lockdown and Covid hit that India discovered its potential to manufacture PPE kits on its own. We built up the capacity of over 1,100 companies in our country, becoming the second largest exporter in the world with a turnover of over a billion dollars in just 3 months, PPE suits the needs of not only our country but 160 countries supplied. This was possible only because Modi is the Prime Minister.
that the opposition in our country is shouting and demanding the import of vaccines and the prime minister was firm and said let’s make vaccines in India and not stand in international queues for vaccines because India is the home of the Gandhi family in our country was under the rule. , We technically distributed 220 crore doses of vaccines to our citizens and have seen Vaccine Maitri fill many Indians with pride by helping more than 160 countries with not only vaccines but pharmaceuticals like Paracetamol. 80 crore Indians have received over 1,121 lakh metric tonnes of free food grains, which has not happened anywhere in the world, during Covid times is something that fills me with pride as part of PM Modi’s cabinet. All this is being done without raising even a single rupee as taxes against our citizens which still makes me proud.
But I feel that every day the stories are told of 11 crore families having toilets for the first time, 4 crore families having a roof over their heads, 23 crore Ayushman Bharat cards distributed across the country, 4.5 crore Indian citizens who have received financial assistance from the Government of India. Received free medical aid of Rs.5 lakh.
Many such achievements and many more to go, but I am grateful that the country has given us the opportunity to serve under Prime Minister Modi. For 9 years of service, the citizens of the main country are proud.
The next question has three parts. Firstly, 40 educationists and academics met CM Siddaramaiah, asking him to scrap NEP in Karnataka. Secondly, the LPG cylinders claimed by the government to help women are now out of reach of women, which is the allegation of the opposition. Third, a united opposition continues to boycott until the opening of the new parliament. That’s why today’s government has not been able to bring the opposition together.
First of all, if the opposition parties are saying that they are boycotting the Parliament, please tell that they are boycotting the people, not Modi, because this is the house of the people, this is the parliament of the people. Today, the opposition parties are so arrogant that they boycott even the biggest temple of our democracy, which tells a lot about the arrogance of a particular political family, which has become the bedrock of the opposition’s dreams.
Secondly, when you talk about issues like the challenges that the country faced, I must say here imagine the country facing the Covid pandemic in the absence of a leader like Prime Minister Modi. One of the biggest examples of how our Prime Minister was determined to ensure the safety of the citizens of our country is when the war stopped because PM Modi said that I needed to make sure that my citizens were evacuated. What better example of the Prime Minister’s resolve to ensure the safety of every citizen? That’s why we say ‘Modi hai to mumkin hai’.
As far as opposition unity is concerned, it has to be explained how the factions which have slaughtered each other for political gains can unite. Mamta Bandopadhyay has been accused by many Congress leaders of West Bengal that she attacked the Congress party and maligned its name. So can the TMC, which has bloody hands, especially by attacking Congress workers, can Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi or Mrs Vadra truly shake that hand?
Nitish ji has been continuously calling Sonia Gandhi corrupt. Is the hunger for power so divine that Rahul Gandhi would embrace a man who repeatedly, repeatedly calls his own mother corrupt? As far as Nitish Babu himself is concerned, the person who needed help to stand on his political feet is today supporting others, it is a paradox in itself.