CHENNAI: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday said the opposition INDIA bloc’s “new formula” to abuse him is to say he does not have a family but the people have rejected it by chanting in one voice that they belong to Modi’s family. “Dynasty parties only think about their future but I work for everyone’s future,” the PM said.
“While the motto of the DMK and the Congress is ‘family first’, for me it is ‘nation first’," he said. “Does having a family give them the licence to engage in corruption? Does having a family mean having a licence to seize power for their family?" Modi asked the crowd at a BJP public meeting held in Chennai on Monday.
Modi said his government’s favourite task was Swachhata Bharat Abhiyan (Clean Bharat Mission) and he wanted to clean everything including corruption.
Without naming Udhayanidhi Stalin, Modi said the Supreme Court had posed some “tough questions” to a DMK minister. “Insulting the faith of crores of people is an identity of the dynasts,” he said in a veiled reference to Udhayanidhi’s Sanatan Dharma comments.
Exhorting the people to support the BJP, PM said he would expedite the probe against ‘Tamil Nadu’s enemies’. “The centre has been spending lakhs of crores of rupees for schemes in Tamil Nadu and the beneficiaries have now started getting the assistance directly into their bank accounts. This is the biggest grouse of the DMK.
A family is irritated at this fact in TN. The DMK men want to take credit for the schemes. This is my assurance to the people of Tamil Nadu. Modi will not allow the money allocated for developmental work to be looted. The looted money will be collected back and will be spent on the people of Tamil Nadu. This is Modi’s guarantee,” he said.
DMK failed to manage Chennai floods, says Modi
Referring to the Supreme Court verdict on Monday which held that legislators who take bribe to vote or speak in parliament or state legislative assemblies won’t get any immunity from criminal prosecution, Modi said “After the decision of the Supreme Court, there is mourning in the INDIA Alliance. Because, besides corruption and bribery, the alliance does not know anything.”
“You are my family. The people of India are my family. The youth are my family. I work day and night to brighten their future. The farmers and the poor of the country are my family, so I strive to empower them. Those who have no one, they also belong to Modi and Modi belongs to them. Mera Bharat, Mera Parivar! Modi regards all 140 crore Indians as his family, his ‘Parivarjan’,” he said.
At this juncture, Modi said in Tamil “naandhan modiyin kudumbam” (I’m Modi’s family) and the BJP cadre on the ground stood up, raised their hands and repeated the same. Modi then said “naandhaan” and the crowd said “modiyin kudumbam”. All those on the dais too stood up and repeated the slogan.
Targeting the ruling DMK, the PM alleged that the state government did not do flood management during the severe inundation in Chennai last December but instead “managed” the media to send out the message that everything is fine.
Against the backdrop of the DMK sacking its functionary Jaffer Sadiq over allegations of his connection to a drug cartel, the PM said the information he received was worrisome and drug availability is rampant in Tamil Nadu.
Modi witnesses core loading of reactor
The PM witnessed the initiation of core loading at the 500 MWe Prototype Fast Breeder Reactor in Kalpakkam. The reactor can produce more fuel than it consumes and can help India achieve self-reliance in nuclear fuel for future reactors