Amid US tariff heat, PM Modi bats for Aatmanirbharta
economic reforms
and
good governance
even as he charged Congress with treating Dalits as "slaves" by continuing with their archaic laws while flashing copies of the Constitution.
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Addressing a rally here after inaugurating two major national highway projects - the Dwarka Expressway and Urban Extension Road-II - worth ₹11,000 crore, Modi underscored two key themes of his Independence Day speech - of India giving a befitting reply to its enemies and of becoming Aatmanirbhar (self-reliant).
"To make India strong, we must move forward taking inspiration from Chakradhari Mohan (Lord Krishna) and to make India self-reliant, we have to tread on the path of Charkhadhari Mohan (Mahatma Gandhi)," Modi said.
Modi appealed to the people to be "vocal for local" and buy swadeshi products. He also underlined that the next-generation GST reforms will be a double bonus for people during Diwali. He emphasised that his government stands for expansion of good governance to make life and business easy.
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He underlined that good governance means treating the people as supreme. "You are our high command. Our constant endeavour is to make the lives of people easy. This is visible in our policies, in our decisions," he said.
Modi attacked the erstwhile Congress governments for what he termed as an "indifferent attitude" towards development. This was visible in the low budgets allocated for infrastructure development.
"Pressure and interference of the government used to be very high earlier. Our aim is to end both," Modi said.
He cited an example of a harsh law against sanitation workers that was prevalent for a long time.
"Previous governments in Delhi used to treat the sanitation workers as their slaves. Those who dance with (copies of) the Constitution on their head used to trample the Constitution. You will be shocked to hear the truth about how they used to betray your feelings. There was a dangerous law against our sanitation workers. In the Delhi Municipal Corporation Act, there was a provision that if a sanitation worker does not turn up for work for a day without informing (his superiors), then he could be imprisoned for a month. Can you put somebody in jail for such a minor mistake?" Modi said.
He claimed that while those who make tall claims about social justice kept such laws in force, his government is looking out for such laws and abolishing them.
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