File picture of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who returned to Delhi from his six-day tour of three Asian countries last night, today met his top five ministers to discuss the completion of the BJP-led coalition's first year in power.
Home Minister Rajnath Singh, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, Foreign Minister Sushma Swaraj, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Venkaiah Naidu and Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari arrived at the Prime Minister's Race Course Road residence for the meeting that began at 10 am.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his ministers took office on May 26 last year, and that date is being observed as
Jan Kalyan Parv (People's Welfare Festival) in an apparent bid to counter the opposition's allegation that the Modi government is "pro-corporate" or in Congress leader Rahul's Gandhi's words, a "
suit-boot ki sarkar."
Apart from a review of the government's performance in the last one year, the top ministers reportedly discussed a broad blueprint of the government's agenda for the next year, with a continued focus on a rejuvenation of the economy and policies for the poor.
The PM is also believed to have briefed the ministers about his trip to China, Mongolia and South Korea, designed primarily to invite investment in India.
will also reportedly discussed plans to mark the government's first-year anniversary and how to dull an aggressive opposition Congress' counter-campaign.
If the ruling BJP plans 500 press conferences and 250 rallies across the country, the Congress is prepping to hold about a 100 press conferences to attack it, 24 of them today. Rahul Gandhi has set the pace with daily attacks on PM Modi.
At a strategy meeting when the PM was away, party chief Amit Shah reportedly instructed spokespersons to aggressively apprise people of the government's achievements.
PM Modi will kick off celebrations on May 25, with a rally in Mathura, the hometown of Deen Dayal Upadhyay, the patriarch of the party's ideological mentor the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh.