After win, Modi talks of inclusivity, a new India

Fresh from BJP's landslide win in UP and Uttarakhand after a bitter and often divisive campaign, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday talked about inclusivity and pitched for building a 'new India' by 2022 that would have made the nation's founding fathers proud.

Accepting felicitations from party leaders and supporters at BJP headquarters, Modi said he saw the election results, particularly in Uttar Pradesh, as the "foundation of the new India".

"I see this victory as the foundation of a new India where 65 per cent of the population will be of young people below 35 years of age... a new India of unprecedently vigilant women.

"A new India where the poor do not want anything by way of charity but seek the opportunity to chart out their own course. I see this change happening," he told the gathering which lapped up every word he said, amid repeated chants of 'Modi! Modi! Modi!'

Earlier in the day, Modi tweeted,

"India is emerging, which is being powered by the strength & skills of 125 crore Indians. This India stands for development."

Modi, whose 'crematorium and graveyard' remark at an election rally in UP was seen as intended to polarise voters along communal lines, in a statement on his website Narendramodi.in said," India is transforming, powered by the strength of each and every citizen of India.

"An India that is driven by innovation, hard work and creativity; an India characterised by peace, unity and brotherhood; and an India free from corruption, terrorism, black money and dirt."

The theme of development ran through his felicitation speech too.

"Beyond the emotive issues, political parties fought shy of going to elections on the issue of development. Development is a difficult subject. In these elections, there was a lack of emotive issues, but the huge voter turnout after the campaign based on development shows the transition that his happening towards the creation of a new India," he said.

These elections must be evaluated as people have voted heavily despite the absence of any emotional issue. The poor have voted in large numbers on the topic of development, he said.

Modi, who was accused by his rivals of playing caste and religion politics during the campaign, said the BJP-led dispensation would take everybody along as "in democracy, governments are formed with a majority but run with consensus".

Noting that the government has no right to discriminate against anybody, Modi said, "This government is of those who have voted for it and also those who have not. Of those who have walked along, and also of those who have not."

"Everybody will join in the making of a new India," he said.