India will be among the world’s top three economies in my next term, PM Modi says in Solapur

Prime Minister Narendra Modi guarantees that India will be among the world's top three economies in his next term.

“I have given a guarantee to my countrymen that India will be among the world’s top three economies in my next term as Prime Minister,” Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on Friday while criticising the previous Congress-led governments for the failure of their poverty-alleviation programmes which were riddled with corruption.

Addressing a large crowd in Solapur, Mr. Modi’s speech expressed confidence that the Bharatiya Janata Party would win the 2024 Lok Sabha election and that he would return to power for a third term as Prime Minister.

Mr. Modi laid the foundation stones of eight AMRUT (Atal Mission for Rejuvenation and Urban Transformation) projects in the State worth around ₹2,000 crore, and dedicated 15,000 houses of the Raynagar Housing Society in Solapur whose beneficiaries include thousands of handloom and power loom workers, rag pickers, bidi workers among others.

“It is essential for India to be self-reliant country in order to be a ‘vikasit’ [developed] one,” said the PM, who was visiting Maharashtra for the second time in a fortnight.

Without naming the Congress party, he took potshots at the alleged inefficacy of the earlier Congress-led regimes, stating, “For a long time in the country, there used to be garibi hatao [remove poverty] slogans. But despite these, poverty prevailed. While projects used to be announced in the name of the poor, the beneficiaries never received any financial aid which used to be gobbled up by middlemen. We finished off these middlemen by eliminating ten crore of them and depositing ₹30 lakh crores directly into the bank accounts of the beneficiaries via direct transfer.”

Previous governments had thrown intent, policy and devotion in serving the poor to the winds, alleged the Prime Minister, while remarking that the intentions of the BJP-led Central government was “clear” and its policy was to make India a developed nation.

“I have given a guarantee to my countrymen that India will be among the top three world economies in my coming term. Earlier governments had coined slogans like aadhi roti khayenge [eat half a roti]. Why will my people eat half a roti when Modi is there? Everyone will have a full ‘roti’ to eat,” the PM said, in a jibe at Congress regimes of the past.