PM Modi gets an Indian-style welcome at the Unesco HQ in Paris

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday said BJP’s resounding mandate in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls was meant to build a “new India”, and asserted that in a new India, there was no place for corruption, nepotism, loot of people’s money and terrorism.

“This mandate is not only to run a government but to build a new India. A new India which is prosperous and whose civilisation and culture are respected by the world, where it also takes the lead in modernity. An India where the focus is on ease of living as much as ease of doing business,” Modi said.

Addressing the Indian community at the Unesco headquarters in Paris, Modi said the government had acted quickly on several issues and taken “major decisions”, such as bringing a legislation to ban and make the practice of triple talaq punishable, after winning a second term in office. “In ‘new India’, corruption, nepotism, dynasty, loot of people’s money and terrorism have been reined in like never before,” he said.

Referring to the defanging of Article 370 which does away with Jammu & Kashmir’s special status, Modi said, “There is no scope for temporary in India. You would have seen that a country of 1.25 billion people, the land of Mahatma Gandhi , Gautam Buddha, Ram, Krishna, took 70 years to remove what was temporary. To remove temporary, it took 70 years, I don’t know whether I should laugh or cry... Reform, perform and transform and with permanent systems, the country is moving forward to achieve its goal.”

“India is racing ahead not because of Modi... it is because of the stamp of approval that the people of India have given in the form of their votes,” the PM said amid cheers of “Modi hai toh mumkin hai”.

The PM’s remarks on corruption come within two days of the high-profile arrest of senior Congress leader and former finance minister P Chidambaram by the CBI in a money laundering case and are also seen in the context of Modi’s poll-time promise that while several influential accused had been brought within sight of jails in his first term, they would soon find themselves in prison.

Hailing the move of doing away with the practice of triple talaq, he asked how a “new India” could accept such injustice to Muslim women. “Inspired by the mantra of clear policy and right direction, one after another several major decisions have been taken by the government,” he said.

“The 100-day milestone is yet to arrive. Mind you, the first 50-75 days are generally taken to plan things and get greetings and congratulatory calls, but we did not get into that,” he added.

India would be free of tuberculosis in 2025, five years ahead of the global target of 2030, he said. Ahead of his address, the PM inaugurated a memorial in honour of victims of two Air India crashes in France in the 1950s and 1960s.

“In the last five years, we have red-carded a number of bad practices from the country,” he said using a football analogy. Modi also talked about his government’s achievements such as forming of the “jal shakti” ministry, pension for poor farmers and traders and doing away of the “inhuman practice” of triple talaq.

He also highlighted that the recently concluded Parliament session was the most productive in the last six decades. Modi said a lot was being discussed about “infra”, which could be taken as “In plus Fra” — the alliance of India and France.



In Video: PM Narendra Modi to visit France for a bilateral meeting with President Macron on August 22-23