Ujjwala to vaccines to Vande Bharat: BJP showcases nine years of Govt

Speaking in one of a series of meet-the-press events to mark the milestone, BJP president J P Nadda said that the Prime Minister’s recent three-nation tour had reinforced the image of a transformed India on the global stage while on the domestic front, flagship programmes and schemes had enriched the “roots”.

The event was attended by senior BJP leaders and several Union ministers, including Amit Shah, Rajnath Singh, Nirmala Sitharaman, Ashwini Vaishnaw, Anurag Thakur, Smriti Irani and Rajeev Chandrasekhar. Also present was national head, media, Anil Baluni.

At the event, the party released a booklet — Sewa, Sushasan and Garib Kalyan – that sought to underline “inclusive” welfare schemes such as the Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana (PMUY) under which 9.6 crore LPG connections had been issued and free rations to 80 crore citizens during the Covid pandemic.

As many as 11.72 crore “Samman Ghars” or public toilets for women had been constructed across the country’s villages even as India now had the world’s largest public health care program in the form of the Ayushman Bharat Yojana, the party said. A senior Minister said the Prime Minister had identified the “challenge so many women faced when they started their day” in his push towards building toilets.

The party flagged the upgrade in infrastructure: 17 Vande Bharat trains and 400 on their way; 74 new airports constructed in the last nine years while the number of airports in the country in 2014 had stood at 74; 54,000 km of national highways, earmarking 111 waterways and Metro rail connectivity in 15 cities.

The party flagged what it called was the “historic” decision to provide reservation to economically weaker sections of the society. It listed the Kashi Vishwanath Corridor in Varanasi, the Mahakaal Lok projects in Ujjain, the construction of a Ram temple in Ayodhya and various other projects to underscore what it said was the government’s commitment towards ensuring that India’s civilisational history and culture get due recognition.