Under attack for being pro-corporate and anti-poor, Prime Minister Narendra Modi is quietly redefining the difficult-to-understand Sanskritised ideological slogans of the Bharatiya Janata Party such as Antyodaya (welfare of the last man) in favour of simpler Garib Kalyan or welfare of the poor.

At his valedictory speech at the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)’s Executive meet on Saturday, Modi gave examples of how he used Garib Kalyan to reach out to the poor – traditionally a Congress vote bank – when he was the Gujarat chief minister. He said his usage of commonplace slogans rattled the Gujarat unit of the Congress.

Modi asked the BJP to mark the centenary of Deen Dayal Upadhyaya, the founder of its precursor the Bharatiya Jan Sangh, from September of this year as Garib Kalyan Varsh (year for the welfare of the poor). Interestingly, Antyodaya is a term the Sangh Parivar credits Upadhyaya to have coined.

Antyodaya along with Upadhyaya’s philosophy of ekatm manava-vad (integral humanism) remain the centrepiece of the BJP ideology. BJP governments at the Centre and in states have launched several schemes named Antyodaya, including the Modi government launching the Deendayal Upadhyaya Antyodaya Yojana for rural and urban poor in September 2014. However, Modi would rather have the BJP use simple to understand words.

“It was as if the PM was telling us that celebrate Upadhyayaji's centenary by all means, but employ Mahatma Gandhi's slogans to connect to the poorest,” said a BJP leader. The PM recounted how in Gujarat he thought of reaching out to those poor families that were the beneficiaries of government welfare schemes in each district. He proposed to start Lok Kalyan Mela (fair for welfare of the people) to invite these families there and re-register them for the schemes in each district. However, he soon realised it would be better to rename the fairs as Garib Kalyan Mela, and these were immensely successful.

According to sources present at the Executive, Modi said the Congress was so disturbed at this that it not only complained to the governor but also took out protest marches. Modi asked all BJP state governments to work for the dalits, the deprived and the poor – sections of the population that the Congress has traditionally come to represent.

Modi also spoke of how only a government that cares for the poor could have abolished the wealth tax on the rich. He said only Rs 900 crore accrued to the state exchequer from the wealth tax, while the newly-introduced two per cent surcharge is likely to get Rs 9,000 crore in taxes. Commerce Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said after the Executive that Indira Gandhi-led Congress had floated the slogan Garibi Hatao (remove poverty) in 1971, but the Congress empowered poverty while the BJP will empower the poor.

The Modi government has been under attack from the Opposition for its policies being pro-corporate and its land Bill has been termed anti-farmer. Some in the party believe this perception contributed to the BJP's embarrassing loss in the Delhi Assembly elections, and the party could similarly suffer in Bihar Assembly elections scheduled in October this year, too. The PM's speech on Saturday was largely focused on asking the BJP leaders and workers to work for the poor – to ensure 10 million poor homes get cooking gas soon and to reach out to 2.3 million families still involved in manual scavenging to ensure they get the benefits of government schemes and find alternate means of livelihood.