NEW DELHI: Union minister Kiren Rijiju on Thursday said the focus of the Narendra Modi government in its third term would be on putting India in the higher-income category for it to be counted amongst the developed countries of the world.
In a video interview, Rijiju told PTI that a per capita income of USD 18,000 would be required for India to be counted among the world's developed countries and it would be the Modi government's endeavour in its third term to put the nation in the higher-income category.
He said despite lagging on many counts, the prime minister's "aggressive and inspiring" leadership has catapulted India into another league in the global comity of nations.
"The whole world looks at India as a leader except that we are not a high-income country yet.
But our status has reached here," the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader said.
Rijiju slammed the previous Congress governments for "not delivering" on basic necessities, such as toilets, bank accounts for people, food security, which, he said are now being provided by the Modi government.
"On one hand, India's stature in the global community is rising.
On the other hand, basic needs of people are being delivered at their doorsteps.
"Sometimes, I wish we had a prime minister like Narendra Modi some 30 or 40 years ago, because had we provided the basic needs to the citizens three decades ago, we would have been talking about something else (today)," he said.
The Union minister of earth sciences said one can talk about issues, such as quality of life, only after the basic needs of the citizens have been provided for.
"Ten years of the Modi government have done what nobody could do in the last 60 years, especially the Congress.
Banking facility, 4G network, food, bank accounts, LPG gas, light bulbs at your home, roads, highways all across the country -- all these dreams of the common people are reality now," he said.
"I think the next phase will put India in the next stage of the higher-income category where you will generate much more resources to improve your living standards and in aggregate, it will raise the level of India's income to put the country in the next phase because we are talking about Aatmanirbhar Bharat to Viksit Bharat," Rijiju said.
He said India will be completely self-sufficient and a developed country by 2047.
"For that, we must at least have a USD 18,000 per capita income.
Then only we will be considered as a rich and developed country," Rijiju said, pointing out that the per capita income is now in the range of USD 2,500.
He said the Modi government's first term was spent correcting the mistakes of the previous Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) dispensation, repairing the image of the country that had a "corrupt" government and providing basic necessities to people.
"In the second term, we got into saturation mode that everybody should get a mobile phone, every village should have water, everyone should get electricity and roads.
So the next election is based on what we have delivered and the next five years will be a robust journey towards making India fully developed," the minister said.
Rijiju said the prime minister and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) believe in serving the country relentlessly to achieve the development goals.
"Nothing is a done deal in a democracy," the BJP leader said, replying to a question on whether he considers the upcoming Lok Sabha polls a done deal given that the government has already started drafting the roadmap for the next five years.
"That is why, in the middle of the election mode, one full day -- from 9 am to 6:30 pm -- the prime minister had discussions about Viksit Bharat and the way to reclaim India's position and how India should become a fully-developed country by 2047," he said, referring to the Council of Ministers' meeting on March 3.