Prime Minister Narendra Modi is the "most successful PM" of independent India, Home Minister Amit Shah today said, crediting him with bringing "Ramrajya" to the country in 2014.
People took a decision "with great patience" and voted the BJP to power, with an absolute majority for the first time in 30 years, Amit Shah said.
"After the 1960s, till 2014, people questioned whether this multi-party system will work. By 2014, the dream of Ramrajya (Lord Ram's ideal rule) was left shattered," Mr Shah said at a function to mark 20 years of PM Modi as head of governments - in Gujarat and at the Centre.
"People, with great patience, voted the BJP and for the first time, a non-Congress government came to power with a complete majority... Out of humility PM Modi calls himself pradhan sevak. But I say he is the most successful PM of Independent India."
Mr Shah's comments may be a provocation for the Congress, which has often accused the BJP of trying to wipe out the legacy of the grand old party, appropriate its leaders and target its icon Jawaharlal Nehru - the first Prime Minister of India.
The topic of the event was "Reviewing The Two Decades of Narendra Modi As Head of Government".
"The organisers told me who knows Modi-ji better than you, but they are mistaken - the people of the country know him better than I do," Mr Shah remarked.
The Union Home Minister went on to praise PM Modi's organisational skills and said he had taken the country into a different trajectory in removing poverty, economic development, national security and foreign policy.
"I don't want to say much about Modi-ji's organisational capabilities but in 2001 the party decided that he would be the Chief Minister of Gujarat. Before that he had not even contested the Panchayat election and had an MA (Masters) degree. He was inexperienced. When he became CM the situation in Gujarat was not good. People did not have faith that Modi-ji would succeed as a Chief Minister," Mr Shah said.
True reform is to turn around the situation, not the method, and PM Modi "changed the situation", he added.
"In the 2014 election, the government was such that every cabinet minister considered themselves PM and no one considered the Prime Minister as the Prime Minister. There was policy paralysis, national security was under threat and corruption was at a peak. There was public anger and campaigns all over.
In that situation, he said, when PM Modi came to power, there was hope among the people and they felt, "why not try this experiment too."
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