NEW DELHI: The people of India have great faith in the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and love him from the bottom of their heart and it is very significant that he became the leader of the nation without any family background, Union Home Minister Amit Shah said on Wednesday.
Addressing a function organised to release a book "Modi @ 20: Dreams Meet Delivery", he said under Modi's leadership, the BJP reached every nook and corner of the country and broke several myths like it was a party of Hindi-speaking people, had influence only in urban areas and not a party of farmers.
Shah said the Modi government does not take decisions which people would like, but which would be good for the people and without any political consideration.
"Getting such a huge mandate (in 2014), without any surprise, without any family background, without political upbringing and again people giving him another mandate (in 2019) as prime minister is significant. It shows that people of India accepted Modi as their leader and loves from the bottom of their hearts. He won people's trust," he said.
The home minister said Modi was the only leader who has been working with equally great dedication both in the party as well as in the government.
He said under Modi's leadership, the BJP has become the largest party in the world and became the party which works in the highest number of states.
"He broke many myths. That this is a party which works for the Hindi-speaking people. We are now ruling states from Gujarat to Northeast, from Assam to Manipur, this myth has been broken when we formed the governments in all these states.
"They said it was an urban party but we won village after village. We broke this myth. They said this was not a party of farmers. But when BJP won in the cooperatives and the farmers voted for us, this myth was broken too. It has been established now that the BJP has been spread from east to west and north to south and it is a party acceptable to everyone. It happened under Modi's leadership," he said.
Referring to the previous UPA government, Shah said during 2012-14, people's trust in multi-party democracy was gradually eroding and people had started thinking that the country's (governance) system has failed and this system can't take the country forward.
"At that time, the BJP made him (Modi) the party's prime ministerial candidate. He gave leadership to the party. People chose him as the country's leader, as their Prime Minister, on the basis of his governance record in Gujarat.
"Now there is no doubt in the minds of the people whether multi-party democracy can deliver or not. He has brought back people's faith in democracy," he said.
Talking about Modi's governance model, the home minister said there used to be discord between India's foreign policy and national security policy and the country's security policy could never come out of the foreign policy.
"But Modi's foreign policy has clarified that India wants to make friendship with all countries and our primary goal is India's security.
Such clarity was not made by any leader in the last seven decades," he said.
Shah said there has not been a single opposition to the National Education Policy (NEP) despite the fact that it was formulated by a BJP prime minister.
"So far all educational policies were framed to provide employment to the children.
But this policy has given thrust on improving the skills of the children, their understanding and learning power," he said.
The home minister said that the previous government was marked by policy paralysis but Modi has set an example how policies could be framed.
Modi framed a policy on space which no one has ever thought of and through this space policy, he had opened a big market for India, he said.
Similarly, Shah said, there was no policy on drones and by making drone policy he took a big step and created space for business.
He said people have seen the work of Modi in the last 20 years, his successes in the last 20 years and his role as a head of the governments.
"But as a student of political science, we should go beyond this. Unless we study the 30 years prior to his successful 20 years in power, study on him will remain incomplete.
"In those 30 years, he had seen India closely, its people, poverty, the social and administrative ills, which made him understand the problems and find their solutions," he said.
Edited and compiled by BlueKraft Digital Foundation and published by Rupa, "Modi @ 20: Dreams Meet Delivery" looks into 20 years of Modi's model of governance in Gujarat and at the Centre.
It is a compilation of chapters authored by the likes of Shah, Ajit Doval, Sudha Murty, Nandan Nilekani, Arvind Panagariya, S Jaishankar, Lata Mangeshkar, P V Sindhu and Nripendra Misra among others.