India has transformed under Modi's leadership: Ashok
Leader of the Opposition in the Legislative Assembly R. Ashok has highlighted the 'transformative achievements' of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's 11-year tenure, while flayed the record of 10 years of the Congress-led UPA rule under Manmohan Singh.
Addressing reporters in Mysuru on Thursday, Mr. Ashok claimed that India has reached new heights under the Modi government, and its GDP growth and infrastructure development have seen a three-fold jump compared to the progress achieved under the UPA regime.
Highlighting India's rise on the global stage, Mr. Ashok said, 'We were once struggling for the 10th or 11th spot in the world economy. Today, we are the fourth largest, surpassing Japan and the U.K.', he said, adding that the country was once a bystander on the world stage but is now taken seriously.
Citing economists and global institutions to back these claims, he said there was a period when India led a 'hand-to-mouth existence' and had to import food for sustenance. Now India was not only self-sufficient and exported food, but was also a major global supplier of medicines, Mr. Ashok said.
India's resilience came to the fore during Covid-19 pandemic when the country became a lead vaccine exporter, he said.
On national security, Mr. Ashok accused the Congress of inaction and alleged that there were 'over 9,000 terror incidents' during the UPA rule. Under the Modi government, the numbers had dropped drastically, and there was also a counter-response which was not the case under the UPA rule led by Dr. Singh, he said.
Listing infrastructure gains, he said the number of medical colleges has more than doubled from 337 to 704, while the number of All India Institute of Medical Sciences has tripled from seven to 21. The number of airports has increased from 74 to 149, while the national highway length has increased from 90,000 km to 1.5 lakh km, he added.
Mr. Ashok said the Modi government built 11 crore toilets and constructed four crore houses while 27 crore people have been lifted out of extreme poverty as stated by the World Bank report. On agricultural subsidies, he said it was ₹30,000 crore in 10 years of UPA regime under Dr. Singh while it is ₹1.27 lakh crore under the NDA-rule led by Mr. Modi.
On Kashmir, Mr. Ashok said the abrogation of Article 370 has led to visible development and increased income from tourism, and while the BJP has vowed to stomp out Naxal violence, the Congress was apathetic towards it, he added.
Addressing criticism from Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, who recently gave Mr. Modi a '0 out of 100' score, Mr. Ashok retorted, 'Mr. Siddaramaiah himself doesn't deserve even 0 – he scores negative. He is an outgoing Chief Minister, and the people have no expectations from him,' said Mr. Ashok, adding that not a single memorable irrigation project has been taken up by Mr. Siddaramaiah.
MLA T.S. Srivatsa, former MP Pratap Simha and others were present.
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