New Delhi: The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi has completed 8 years in power at the Centre. In both the Lok Sabha elections held in the year 2014 and 2019, the BJP had emerged victorious with massive majority. And now the party is gearing up for the 2024 general elections.
During this period the Modi government took several decisions that are considered historic. However, some of them invited huge criticism from the opposition parties and the people.
Let's take a look at some important decisions taken by the Modi government in the last 8 years.
Farm Laws
In 2020, the three farm laws aimed at facilitating minimum support price (MSP) to the farmers was passed in the parliament but the government was forced to withdraw it after farmers refused to budge from their demand of repealing the laws and held continous protest for almost 1 year. On November 19, 2019, the PM Modi announced the repeal of the three laws. The decision to first bring agricultural laws and then repeal them was considered a big and controversial decision of the government.
Abrogation of Article 370
Abrogation of Article 370 was one of the toughest and historical decisions made by the Modi led BJP government. In August 2019 Jammu and Kashmir was stripped off its special status and a bifurcation of the state into two union territories - J&K and Ladakh was proposed. Article 370, gave special powers to J&K to have its own constitution.
Triple Talaq
After a brief resistance from the opposition, the Modi government passed the Triple Talaq Bill On August 1, 2019. The BJP for a very long time had been vouching for its passage in the parliament even when not in power. This Bill brought huge relief to all those Muslim women, who were immediately abandoned by their husbands on saying talaq thrice.
Surgical Strike
On the morning of 18 September 2016, almost three years after the Modi government came to power, Pakistan-based terrorists attacked an army base in Kashmir’s Uri in which 19 Indian soldiers were martyred. The Indian government avenged the attack by conducting surgical strike in Pakistan Occupied Kashmir (PoK). More than 40 terrorists were killed in this attack and all terror launchpads were destroyed.
Balakot Air Strike
Like in 2016, there was a major terrorist attack on Indian Army personnel in 2019. Fourty CRPF jawans were martyred in this attack in Pulwama. This time, the the Indian Air Force on morning of February 26 carried out air strikes in Balakot of Pakistan Occupied Kashmir and bombed terror launch pads there. However, during the attack the fighter plane of Wing Commander Abhinandan crashed in PoK. He was later released after being held captive for a few days by Pakistan
Demonetisation
On the night of 8 November 2016, PM Modi in a surprise move announced withdrawal of Rs 500 and Rs 1000 currency notes from public use, creating a huge stir in the country. The move was aimed at curbing the use of black money, terror funding and corruption. According to some political experts, the decision failed to reap much benefit.