With the Narendra Modi government completing nine years and the 2024 Lok Sabha elections on the horizon, there are questions about how India has changed, the various feats, and what challenges remain. Union minister Smriti Irani provided some succinct answers on Wednesday in an exclusive conversation with CNN-News18. Edited excerpts:
On a day when the numbers read very positively for the women of our country— 1,020 women per 1,000 men, that’s the data as per the book that has been launched to commemorate 9 years of Modi Sarkar—but for you, what has perhaps been the most significant achievement over the last 9 years, because you have straddled multiple ministries and you have been there right through since 2014?
I’ve had the greatest privilege of serving under a visionary Prime Minister who understands the needs of my country. That in my country the education policy had not seen revision for four decades speaks of the apathy with which the Congress ruled and governed my country.
Today I am very proud that the National Education Policy which comes to the fore after four decades has a special gender inclusion fund, whereby infrastructure for gender-related education activities has been ascertained. I am very proud that as minister of education then, the Prime Minister blessed the first-ever MOOCs platform to be made for our country and SWAYAM today has 1.75 crore students who get low-cost higher education. I am extremely proud that India never had a national ranking framework which it does now, and that is why you see the rankings of higher education institutions in the world see the rise in Indian education. I am extremely proud that as the minister of textiles, I was a first-hand witness to India’s self-sufficiency in the production of PPE suits.
Remember, in our country, we kept importing for 70 years at least 50-55 thousand PPE suits a year for the national need. And it was when there was a global lockdown and Covid struck that India discovered its capacity to manufacture PPE kits on our own. We built a capacity of over 1,100 companies in our country, became the 2nd largest exporter in the world in just 3 months with a turnover of over a billion dollars, supplying PPE suits not just for the needs of our nation but across 160 countries. This was only possible because Modi is Prime Minster.
That we had the opposition crying wolf and wanting imports of vaccines in our country and the Prime Minister was steadfast and said let’s make vaccines in India and let’s not stand in international queues for vaccines as India had been habituated under the Gandhi family rule in our country. That we technologically delivered 220 crores doses of vaccines to our citizens and saw Vaccine Maitri help out 160-plus countries with not only vaccines but pharmaceuticals like paracetamol fills many an Indian with pride. That 80 crore Indians have received over 1,121 lakh metric tons of free food grains, which has never happened anywhere in the world, during Covid is something that fills me with pride as part of Prime Minister Modi’s cabinet. That all of this is being done without raising even a single rupee as taxes against our citizens is something that makes me prouder still.
But I think the stories that are told every day are by the 11 crore families that for the first time have a toilet, the 4 crore families that have a roof over their head, 23 crore Ayushman Bharat cards distributed across the country, 4.5 crore Indian citizens who have received medical assistance worth of Rs 5 lakh free from the Government of India.
Many such accomplishments and many more to go, but I am grateful that the country has given us the opportunity to serve under Prime Minister Modi. Seva ke 9 saal ke liye main desh ke naagrikon ka aabhaar vyakt karti hun.
The next question has three parts. Firstly, 40 academics and educationists have met CM Siddaramaiah, saying scrap the NEP in Karnataka. Secondly, LPG cylinders claimed by the government to have helped women are now beyond the reach of women is the allegation that the opposition makes. Thirdly, a united opposition continues to boycott even the inauguration of the new Parliament. So the government of the day has not been able to get the opposition on board.
Firstly, if the opposition parties are saying that they boycott Parliament, please let it be known that they are boycotting the people and not Modi, because it’s the people’s house, it’s the people’s Parliament. That the opposition parties today are arrogant enough to even boycott the biggest temple of our democracy speaks volumes about the egos of a particular political family, which has become the fulcrum for the opposition’s dreams.
Secondly, when you talk about issues such as challenges that the country had to face, I must here say that imagine the country facing a Covid pandemic in the absence of a leader like Prime Minister Modi. One of the greatest examples of how our Prime Minister was resolute in ensuring that the citizens of our country are protected is when a war came to a standstill because Prime Minister Modi said I need to ensure that my citizens are evacuated. What better example of a Prime Minister’s resolve to ensure the safety and security of every citizen? That’s why we say ‘Modi hai toh mumkin hai’.
Insofar as opposition unity goes, one has to explain how can those factions unite that have slaughtered each other politically for political gains. Mamata Bandopadhyay has been accused by many Congress leaders of West Bengal of having attacked and sullied the name of the Congress party. So that TMC, which has bloody hands, especially from attacking Congress workers, can Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi, or Smt Vadra truly shake that hand?
Nitish ji has consistently called Sonia Gandhi corrupt. Is the hunger for power so divine that Rahul Gandhi will embrace a man who continuously, consistently called his own mother corrupt? Insofar as Nitish Babu himself goes, a person who needs help to stand on his own political feet, today offers support to others, that itself is an oxymoronic situation.