Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday said the resounding mandate in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls was for building a 'new India', and asserted that corruption, nepotism, loot of people's money, and terrorism have been reined in like never before.
In a veiled reference to abrogation of Article 370, PM Modi said: "There is no scope for ‘temporary’ in India. You have seen that a country of 1.25 billion people, the land of Mahatma Gandhi, Gautam Buddha, Ram and Krishna, took 70 years to remove what was ‘temporary’.
To remove ‘temporary’ it took 70 years, I don’t know whether I should laugh or cry...Reform, perform, and transform and with permanent systems, the country is moving forward to achieve its goal."
PM Modi, who was in France on the first leg of his three-nation tour, said there have been a number of constructive changes in the last five years.
"India is racing ahead not because of Modi...it is because of the stamp of approval that the people of India have given in the form of their votes," the Prime Minister said, amid loud cheers of 'Modi hai toh mumkin hai' (it is possible if Modi is there) from the crowd.