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Informist, Tuesday, Feb. 4, 2025

NEW DELHI – Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday called all political parties to get rid of the "politics of appeasement" to ensure that the country achieves the Viksit Bharat goal by 2047. "To make our country 'Viksit Bharat', we will have to be free of appeasement. We have chosen the path of 'santushtikaran' (satisfaction). We are walking the path of satisfaction," Modi said.

Replying to the Motion of Thanks on the President's address, the prime minister expressed confidence that the country will be developed by 2047. "We have democracy, demography and demand. We can achieve the goal of Viksit Bharat. India will be a developed country in 2047, when it celebrates 100 years of independence," he said.

In his address of over one and a half hour, Modi highlighted the achievement of his government and attacked the Congress and other opposition parties for neglecting the backward classes and disrespecting the constitution.

Speaking on artificial intelligence, Modi said that the entire world is optimistic about India's artificial intelligence mission. He also stated that the country has opened a nuclear energy sector, and its long-term positive impacts and results will be visible in the future. "For me, there is no single AI, there is double AI, which is the double strength of India. An AI-Artificial Intelligence and the second AI is – Aspirational India. We have established 10,000 tinkering labs in schools, and today, children from these labs are surprising everyone with their robotics innovations. In this Budget, provisions have been made for 50,000 new tinkering labs to further enhance innovation and creativity among students," Modi said.

Modi underlined that the gig economy is a vital area and millions of youth are joining this sector. "There are nearly 10 million gig workers in the country. The gig workers will get the benefit of the Ayushman Bharat health scheme," he said.

Highlighting the achievements of his government in the last 10 years, the prime minister apprised the house of the JAM trinity—Jan Dhan, Aadhaar and mobile--and said that the government started the initiative of direct transfer so that the money reaches to the accounts of beneficiaries directly. "Without caring about political gains or losses, we removed 100 million fake beneficiaries to ensure welfare schemes reach those who really need them. We didn't give false slogans, we gave real development. We developed an ecosystem to bring out the best of our youth. Country will see the results of our far-sighted policies," he said.

"In the last 10 years, we have enhanced savings of the middle class by reducing the income tax. In 2013-14, the tax exemption was only on INR 200,000 income. Today there is an Income tax exemption on INR 1.2 million income," he said.

Countering the Congress party's allegation of deprivation of backward classes under the Bharatiya Janata Party-led government, Modi said that his government granted constitutional status to the Other Backward Classes commission. He said that more opportunities were created for OBCs, scheduled castes and scheduled tribes in every sector. "For some people, speaking about caste is fashion. I pose an important question to the citizens through this house--have there even been three members of parliament simultaneously from the same family of scheduled caste community? I also ask, tell me if there ever were three members of parliament simultaneously from the same family belonging to the scheduled tribes community? There is a vast difference between their (opposition) words and actions," Modi said while referring to Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra. All the Gandhi family scions members of Parliament. End

Reported by Kuldeep Singh and Shahid K. Abbas

Edited by Akul Nishant Akhoury

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