Modi govt empowered women, farmers, marginalised sections, says JP Nadda

New Delhi: The Modi government has empowered women, farmers and marginalised sections of the society by taking various measures for them, while others only talked about doing so, BJP president J P Nadda said on Sunday, mounting a veiled attack on the Congress and other Opposition parties.

From putting the country on the path of economic progress to lifting 25 crore people above the poverty line, the government under Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s leadership has taken various measures for the welfare of all sections of the society, drawing inspiration from Deendayal Upadhyaya’s idea of integral humanism, Nadda said.

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) chief was addressing the valedictory session of a national seminar organised here to commemorate 60 years of Upadhyaya’s lectures on integral humanism.

Nadda, also a Union minister, said the government has provided cooking-gas connections to more than 10 crore households, constructed 12 crore toilets and built four crore pukka houses.

There is a need to understand how the govt under Modi’s leadership has empowered women, farmers and the marginalised sections of the society, and brought them into the “mainstream”, he said.

“Who has really done good for the poor? People only raised slogans, but it was Prime Minister Narendra Modi who provided free foodgrains to 80 crore people and lifted 25 crore people above the poverty line,” Nadda said.

“There were lots of discussions on farmers. Every politician started becoming a farmer leader. However, it was our Atal Bihar Vajpayee first (during his term as the prime minister) and then Prime Minister Narendra Modi who changed the destiny of farmers, taking inspiration from Deendayal Upadhyaya’s integral humanism,” he said,

For farmers’ welfare, the Modi government has taken various measures and rolled out the Kisan Samman Nidhi scheme, soil health card programme and crop insurance scheme, he added.