Bengaluru: Union Minister Anurag Thakur said the Centre has set a target to make India 'Viksit Bharat' by 2047 and slammed the previous UPA government over corruption and scams.
Addressing IT professionals here on Thursday, he said, "... IT stands for 'India Tomorrow' and what is the target for India tomorrow? The target is to develop India into Viksit Bharat by 2047." Taking a dig at the Congress, the Union Minister said, "Can you imagine 10 years back our countrymen were finding it even difficult to think about freeing themselves from the clutches of corrupt Congress party and its alliance partners where one after another scam took place."
Referring to the various scams during the UPA regime, he said because we have a short memory, sometimes we forget especially those aged between 18 and 22, they were only eight and 10 years old then.
"They are not aware of 2G scam or CWG scam... They didn't know about AgustaWestland, Coal scam and all that..." "It is our duty to remind them that between 2009 to 2014, there were so many scams in this country that by 2014 it looked like the growth (of the country) was stagnant, inflation was high and policy paralysis was hitting the country hard and we were looking at an option," he said.
Thakur said the country was looking at a way out and during that time, the BJP came up with an alternative leader named Narendra Modi.
"Modi was a ray of hope in 2014. We promised that we will give you a clean government and I'm glad that in the last 10 years we can proudly say in our government not even a single penny of corruption allegation is levelled against Modi or his ministers," he said.
Hailing the Narendra Modi-led government, Thakur said MODI stands for "Master of Digital Information" and also maker of developed India - Viksit Bharat.
Underscoring that Indian talent was the biggest resource that the country has, he said, "We need to reskill them, upskill them. Covid has taught us whatever you may learn in the era of technology, you have to keep reskilling yourself... and that artificial intelligence will play a very very important role, our talent which is the Indian talent in the field of IT (information technology) will play a very very important role in bringing billions of dollars and jobs to India." Targeting the Congress over I-T department notices to the party, he said, "political parties don't have to pay income tax they have been waived but they have to file income tax returns. But look at the country's oldest party... they fail to file their income tax returns.
"If you don't file your income tax returns, you will get a notice then why should Congress be treated above law. That is what the Income Tax department did, they gave them a notice, but they didn't reply, look at the arrogance they didn't reply," he said.
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