Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday replied to Motion of Thanks on the President's address in Rajya Sabha.
In his address, PM Modi spoke about the COVID-19 pandemic and government's response to it.
"COVID-19 is a pandemic, humankind had never seen such a crisis in the last 100 years. This crisis changes its forms and creates trouble for the people, the entire country and world are fighting against it," he said.
"In this Corona period, India has set an example before the world by giving free ration to more than 80 crore countrymen," he added.
PM Modi also hailed India's vaccination drive and said it set example for the rest of world.
"India has undertaken a 'leadership role' that is being lauded by global leaders for its largest vaccination drive," PM said.
The Prime Minister also said MSMEs and Agriculture sector has been generating the largest employment opportunities in the country. He said, "To ensure there are no halts in agriculture sector, government gave more MSP under direct benefit transfer scheme."
PM also shared that MSMEs was one of the foremost sectors that benefited from Aatma Nirbhar Bharat package that has shown great results.
PM Modi then spoke about the 'recording breaking' 'Nal se Jal scheme' , hailing the initiative, he said, "More than 5 crore gramin families were reached with the 'Nal se Jal' scheme to break another record."
On government's Production Linked Incentive Scheme (PLI) PM said, "The PLI scheme pushed the Indian manufacturing industry further and India has now become a leader in 'Mobile Manufacturing' which has shown a remarkable number in the exports sector.
He further drew attention towards India's progress in the defence manufacturing industry and said, "If we look at our defence manufacturing industry, UP and Tamil Nadu are building Defence corridors. MSMEs showing interest in this sector shows the interest of people in achieving Aatmanirbhar defence.
On economy and employment PM said that in 2021, approximately 1.2 crore new people joined EPFO payroll showing growth in formal sector employment.
He further added that India’s hiring trend has improved as compared to the first COVID wave and the country has generated over 27 lakh jobs in IT sector as per Nasscom report.
He also said, in just 1 year, the number of unicorns built in India has been equivalent to the total unicorns created in the country ever.
PM Modi said that India is only economy in the world witnessing high growth and medium inflation, bringing it down to 4-5% in comparison to double-digit numbers before 2014-2020.
On health-sector the PM said that his government has focused on holistic healthcare services and that fighting COVID-19 was possible because of the strong and cordial cooperation between the Centre and states government.
He further added that the government of India has established 80,000 health and wellness centres that are helping detect serious diseases like cancer & diabetes in the initial stages.
Launching a sharp attack on Congress the PM remarked, "It was said in the House that Congress laid India's foundation and BJP just hoisted a flag. It wasn't said like a joke in the House. It's result of serious thinking that's dangerous to nation - some people believe that India was born in 1947. Problems arise due to this thinking."
PM further said that this mindset gave birth to perversions and referring to the Indira Gandhi imposed emergency said those who strangulated democracy in 1975 should not speak on it.
Modi said, "This mindset it has had an impact on the policies of those who received the opportunity to work for the last 50 years. It gave birth to perversions. This democracy is not due to your generosity. Those who strangulated democracy in 1975 should not speak on it."
Taking a jibe at the grand-old party the PM accused it of placing the Nehru-Gandhi dynasty above everything else and said the biggest threat to India's democracy is dynastic parties.
"The difficulty being faced by Congress is that they never thought of anything else before the dynasty. We'll have to accept that biggest threat to India's democracy is the dynastic parties. When a family is the supreme in any party, then the first casualty is that of talent," he said.
He further took a jibe at Rahul Gandhi's recent "India is described in the Constitution as a union of states and not as a nation,” remark in the Lok Sabha and accused the Congress party of not allowing development in the country.
"When Congress was in power, they didn't allow country's development. Now when in Opposition, they are obstructing the development of the country. They are now objecting to 'Nation'. If the idea of 'Nation' is unconstitutional, then why is your party called Indian National Congress?," he asked.
