Mody says, India more secure, free of corruption after 2014

By Our Special Correspondent

Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on Tuesday that corruption was viewed as an essential part of government before 2014 and asserted that India saw a sea of change in the last eight years due to the Bharatiya Janata Party-led dispensation's zero-tolerance towards graft.

He was speaking at the rally in Shimla's Ridge Maidan to mark the eighth anniversary of becoming prime minister, Modi said, "Now our borders are more secure than they were before 2014."

Modi said that before 2014, there was news about various scams but now his government's development schemes and zero-tolerance against corruption are discussed. Before 2014, corruption was viewed as an essential part of government, he alleged.

He asserted that the NDA government mainstreamed the politics of development, while schemes for service, good governance and welfare of the poor changed the meaning of 'government' for people, the PM said. Now, the government is not the master, but a servant of the masses, he added. The PM said the practice of vote bank politics for decades harmed the country. Modi said India would lend a hand as a donor and not as an explorer. He said that during the corona virus epidemic, India supplied medicines and vaccines to 150 countries, of which the Himachal Pradesh Pharma Hub played a key role.

"I do not consider myself prime minister. Rather, I consider myself as 'pradhan sevak' and a member of the family of 130-crore Indians and my life is for them," Prime Minister Modi told the rally. Before the rally, interacted virtually with beneficiaries of various Central schemes and released Rs 21,000 crore as the 11th installment of the Kisan Samman Nidhi.

Following his arrival at the Mall Road in the Himachal Pradesh capital, Modi, accompanied by Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur, walked to the venue of the rally in Ridge Maidan around 11.30 pm.