Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday spoke on the white paper on the economy that his government presented in Parliament and said he could have brought those figures in 2014 soon after coming to power and it would have suited him politically but he did not do that because he did not see his political interest. “I was shocked seeing the figures in 2014. The economy was in shambles. Policy paralysis and scams plagued the economy so much that global investors were negative about India. Had I exposed all these at that time and a wrong signal was sent across, people would have lost confidence in the country. Like if you tell a patient that he is suffering from a serious disease, he will be held dead there,” PM Modi said at ET Now Global Business Summit 2024.
“I chose Rashtraneeti over rajneeti and when after 10 years the situation became stable I thought now is the time to make people aware of what the economic situation was,” PM Modi said.
India will be 3rd largest economy in NDA’s 3rd term: PM Modi
PM Modi said India will become the third largest economy in the world in the third term of the government for which he is now preparing the roadmap. “This is my guarantee that this will happen in our third term. Be prepared, I don’t hide anything. I give time to everyone for preparation. But people think he is a politician, he won’t walk his talk. But now you are aware of my style. In the third term, there will be major and bigger decisions. I have been planning the roadmap for new projects for the last 1.5 years. I have taken suggestions from over 15 lakh people for this. I never issued any press note regarding this. This is the first time I am saying this. In the next 20-30 days, the roadmap will take a final shape,” PM Modi said.
PM Modi’s ‘wine and cheese’ attack on opposition over poverty
Explaining his ‘money saved is money earned’ policy, PM Modi said time-bound completion of projects helped his government to save money. PM Modi gave the example of Assam’s Bogibeel Bridge the construction of which started in 1998. It was completed in 2018, PM Modi said. “Whose money was getting wasted by this delay in projects? Taxpayers’ money. Our government respected the taxpayers’ money. Be it Kartavya path, the new Parliament Building or Atal Setu — we completed everything on time,” PM Modi said.
The government earned ₹1,100 crore selling the waste cleared out from government offices in the cleanliness drive, PM Modi added. “I maintain distance from the policy of emptying the coffers to get a few votes….you are aware of the electricity policy of some governments but my policy is different. Rooftop solar project will enable people to produce electricity at their house,” the prime minister said.
“The slogans of gareebi hatao have been raised for the last 70 years. But was poverty eliminated? They used to become crorepatis with every new way they suggested to eliminate poverty. Because those policies were made in AC rooms with wine and cheese. But in 2014 after a poor man became the prime minister, their shops got shut. I know how to fight poverty,” PM Modi said adding that 25 crore people were lifted from poverty.
‘Is there any competition, not talking about the May one’: PM Modi
Talking about the speed of projects in his government, PM Modi said, “40,000 km railway line electrification was done in 10 years, double of what happened in the last 70 years. Is there any challenge? I am not talking about May.”
PM Modi then explained the ‘curse of incremental thinking’ and said, “How do you set the target of your organisation? Many people will say it’s based on last year’s figures. If it was 5 in last year, 10 will be better this year. This is wrong because you are limiting yourself. When our government came to power, our bureaucracy too was in this thought of incremental thinking. I decided to free bureaucracy from this and started working faster and at a much bigger scale,” PM Modi said.
