NEW DELHI: A day after Congress and BJP faced off in a bitterly contested

vote, PM Modi suggested that all political parties could sink ideological differences to make common cause to combat ills like corruption, poverty and illiteracy.

“It is the demand of the times we pledge to rid the country of some issues. This can be poverty, hunger, illiteracy or superstition,” the PM told the

on Wednesday to mark the 75th anniversary of the Quit India movement.

He said there would be enough time for politics and mutual recrimination. “Whether it’s political, social or individual corruption, what happened yesterday, who did what and when...there is enough time for such arguments,” he said. “Can we seize this holy moment to celebrate a festival of honesty?”

Putting a spin on the Quit India movement slogan “do or die”, PM

asked MPs in Lok Sabha on Wednesday whether the next five years leading to the 75th anniversary of Independence (2022) could be dedicated to the pledge “karenge aur kar ke rahenge” (We will do and we’ll make sure we do it).

In his speech marking the 75th year of the Quit India movement, the PM skipped mention of

but spoke on

Mahatma Gandhi

, Lal Bahadur Shastri, Ram Manohar Lohia, Jai Prakash Narain, Bal Gangadhar Tilak,

Bose and revolutionaries like Sukhdev, Rajguru, Chandrashekhar Azad and the Chapekar brothers.

Congress chief

dwelled on Nehru and Patel but gave Bose a miss. Though the debate in the Lok Sabha did bring out differences in political perceptions, most opposition leaders, despite criticising the Modi government over issues such as communalism and intolerance, looked beyond partisan issues.

The PM’s remarks come soon after his recent address calling for dialogue to resolve deep-rooted religious stereotypes.

“It is the pledge of 125 crore people of this country and their representatives,” he said, while appealing to political parties to join hands at least on certain points after forgetting ideological differences in a “common effort” to create India of the dreams of the freedom fighters in the next five years, from 2017 to 2022. He said sometimes it appeared that the freedom struggle was being carried on by the “elite class”, but the events of 1942 (Quit India Movement) had drawn people from all sections of the society, from every nook and cranny of the country on the call of the Mahatma.

The emphasis on participation of one and all on the call of Gandhi, could be an oblique rebuttal of allegations that RSS had stayed out. While urging MPs to rise above political differences, Modi cited GST implementation as the success of federalism. “Its success is not the success of a political party but that of the will of all members sitting here in the House (Lok Sabha).” He concluded by asking members to resolve to overcome corruption, give the poor their rights, give youth self-employment, end malnutrition, barriers to women empowerment and illiteracy.