Launching a slew of projects in Uttar Pradesh ahead of the Lok Sabha elections, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday asserted that he only sounds the bugle of development and it is the people who sound the poll bugle for him.
Addressing a gathering in Bulandshahr after inaugurating and laying the foundation stone of development projects worth over Rs 19,100 crore, he said when the government reaches all beneficiaries of its schemes, there is no scope left for discrimination and corruption. "This is true secularism, this is true social justice," PM Modi added.
"Modi is serving you honestly and that is the reason that under our government, 25 crore people have come out of poverty and those left also have hope that they will come out of it. You are my family, your dream is my resolve and that is why when common families like you will be strengthened, that will be my capital," he said.
Talking about 'Modi ki guarantee' which is aimed at achieving saturation of welfare schemes, the prime minister said, "What our government says, it does. Our efforts are directed at ensuring that the benefits of government schemes reach all beneficiaries. Modi is giving a guarantee of saturation, guarantee of a cent per cent (saturation of schemes)." "When the government reaches all beneficiaries, then there is no scope for discrimination... there is no scope for corruption," he asserted.
The prime minister added that he wanted to reach all the needy people quickly without any discrimination.
"For a long time after Independence, someone gave a slogan of 'Garibi Hatao', someone kept lying about social justice but the poor people of the country saw that only a few families got rich and their politics flourished," he said in an apparent attack at the Congress.
PM Modi also said that he saw a few channels that claimed he would sound the poll bugle with this programme.
"I saw in the media that Modi will sound the election bugle in Bulandshahr. Modi sounds the bugle of development, Modi sounds the bugle for the welfare of the last person in the queue. Modi neither needed to sound the poll bugle earlier nor does he need it now and will not need it in the future. People keep doing it for him," he said.
"When people sound the bugle for him, Modi does not need to spend time in it, he spends time in serving the people," the prime minister added.
He further said that for decades after Independence, development was kept confined to a few regions and a big part of the country was deprived.
PM Modi added that Uttar Pradesh was ignored for decades after the Independence as those who ran the governments behaved like rulers and kept the people deprived.
"Such people saw the path of dividing society as an easy route to attain power," PM Modi said, asserting that it was the BJP's double-engine government that gave pace to development in Uttar Pradesh.
Building a developed India is not possible without the fast-paced development of Uttar Pradesh, he added.
The prime minister also said that farmers' interests were his government's top priority and it was creating a 'suraksha kavach (protective shield)' around their families.
"This region gave us Kalyan Singh, who dedicated his life to 'Ram Kaaj' and 'Rashtra Kaaj'," PM Modi said in Bulandshahr.
"In Ayodhya, I said 'pran pratishtha' has been completed, now it is time to take 'rashtra pratishtha' to new heights," he added.
Earlier in the day, the prime minister inaugurated a 173-km-long double-line electrified section between New Khurja and New Rewari on the dedicated freight corridor (DFC) by flagging off goods trains from the two stations through video conference.
He also inaugurated a rail line connecting the Mathura-Palwal section and the Chipiyana Buzurg-Dadri section. These new lines will improve rail connectivity of the national capital to southern-western and eastern India.
PM Modi unveiled multiple road development projects. He also inaugurated Indian Oil's Tundla-Gawaria pipeline. Built at a cost of about Rs 700 crore, this 255-km-long pipeline project has been completed well ahead of its scheduled time.
The prime minister further inaugurated the renovated Mathura sewerage scheme including the construction of a sewage treatment plant at a cost of about Rs 460 crore.
On the occasion, PM Modi was presented with an idol of Lord Ram by Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
