New Delhi: Union Home Minister Amit Shah addressed the inaugural session of the National Conference on "Delivering Democracy" and reviewed two decades of Narendra Modi as the head of the government. Shah said that before the year 2014 people had doubts on the government if they should give a chance to Narendra Modi's leadership but now the country knows PM Modi more than me.


Home Minister Shah said that after the 1960s and by 2014 people doubted if the multi-party democratic system can be successful. People wondered if the system failed, as it didn't yield fruitful results. But, with great patience, they took a decision and gave power to PM Modi with an absolute majority and now they know their lives have changed and the Modi government only works for the welfare of the people.


Shah said, "By the year 2014, the concept of Ram-Raj in the country had collapsed. There was apprehension in the minds of the people that whether our multiparty democratic parliamentary system had failed. But the people of the country gave the decision patiently and handed over the rule of the country to PM Shri Narendra Modi ji with full majority."


Key Points of Amit Shah's speech:



  • The Home Minister spoke about the changes PM Modi brought as the CM of Gujarat. He said, "In 2001, the BJP decided that Shri Narendra Modi will become the CM of Gujarat. It was a rare occasion - because he had no real experience of running administrations until then. The state was reeling under a lot of pressure after facing the Kutch earthquake. He tried to change things and did a lot of work on development and transparency."

  • Shah further said that When Modi became the CM of Gujarat, the state had 67% enrolment and 37% dropout. He started a 'Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao' programme to promote gender ratio and education. This eventually saw 100% enrolment and also took steps to ensure the dropout ratio was reduced to almost zero.

  • Gujarat is the first state since India's independence to ensure that the budget allocation for tribals is in accordance with their population size. This was done under the VanBandhu Kalyan Yojana, Shah said.

  • Taking a jibe at the Congress-ruled government, Amit Shah said that Manmohan Singh's government had ended 10 years before the 2014 elections. In Manmohan Singh's government, the cabinet ministers considered themselves as Prime Minister. There was no policy for the country, there was no talk on the security of the country, every day a new corruption came to the fore. Shah further said, "It seemed that at some point our democratic system would collapse. there was policy paralysis. Perhaps respect for India was at its lowest, corruption of Rs 12 Lakh Cr! There were questions on internal security. It seemed our democratic system would collapse any time. At that time BJP decided to field then Gujarat CM as its PM candidate."

  • Home Minister said that after taking the charge as the Prime Minister of India, Narendra Modi changed the size and scale of government schemes. For example- if earlier in some scheme it was said that 10,000 people would be given pucca houses, PM Modi decided to give pucca houses to all by 2022.

  • Focusing on the decision of abrogation of Article 370, Home Minister said, "I went to the RSS branch for the first time on 12 March 1980, since then I used to listen to about removing Article 370 and 35A. PM Modi got immense public support in 2019 and on 5th August 2019, Article 370 and 35A were abolished from Kashmir forever."

  • Shah further said that Narendra Modi gave a human angle to GDP. His motto was that GDP should grow, but its beneficiary should be the poor & needy. His reforms have always been based on the needs of the poor.

  • Speaking about the government's DBT scheme, Shah said that Rs 19 lakh crore have been sent via DBT, supporting the poor and needy across the nation under various schemes. This highlights the benefits of the Jan Dhan Yojana, under which over 43 crore bank accounts have been opened up.

  • Emphasizing PM Modi's goal of Atmanirbhar Bharat, Shah said, "Today almost all government procurement through GeM has become corruption-free. The scope of GeM is going to increase further. Prime Minister Narendra Modi has started a huge campaign to make the country self-reliant."

  • Laslty, Amit Shah also clarified on his statement that an illiterate man is a burden to the society and said, "I was trolled but I'd like to say again that 'no nation can develop with army of illiterates', it's govts' responsibility to educate them. Somebody who doesn't know his Constitutional rights can't contribute to the nation, as much as it can be done..."