PM Modi asks NDA MPs to organise ‘Swadeshi Mela’

New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday asked the ruling NDA MPs to organise ‘Swadeshi Mela’ to promote indigenous products and make it a mass movement, stressing that self-reliance is the way to power India’s rise when its increasing strength is bound to face some challenges.

Addressing the MPs a day before the vice presidential election, Modi kept the focus on the need for promoting made-in-India products and taking to the masses the wide impact of the GST rate cuts by holding meetings with people and traders in their constituencies, especially during the festival season between Navratri and Diwali, sources said.

Union minister Kiren Rijiju later said that Modi was not referring to any country, while emphasising the need for self-reliance.

“The PM said that some challenges will come up when India is emerging as a strong nation and it needs to be ‘aatmanirbhar’ (self-reliant) to continue on the path to become a developed nation,” he said.

Amid a strain in ties with the US following President Donald Trump’s decision to impose a high 50 per cent tariff on India, Modi has turned up his “swadeshi” pitch even though he has been emphasising on it for a long time.

He asked the MPs to hold fairs to promote made-in-India products in their constituencies, urging them to take a leadership role for this. People should feel as proud for owning made-in-India products as they used to at one point of time about Japanese items, he added.

“Swadeshi” should be a part of every programme they attend, he said.

Modi said the GST rate cuts have triggered a “lehar” (wave) among people, but MPs needs to build on it by holding “swadeshi mela” and “vyapari sammelan” (meetings with traders).