PM Modi: Ready to pay political price for better India
While speaking at the inaugural session of the 15th Hindustan Times Leadership Summit 2017, PM Narendra Modi promised to ensure "greater transparency, development-friendly system and citizen-centric governance." Modi insists that he knew that the fight against corruption and black money would cause difficulties for the government. But, he said that he is ready to pay the political price for the steps he has taken.
'NDA government has caused an unprecedented change in people's mindset'
Modi commended his government for causing an irreversible positive transformation in India; he declared that people's mindset has undergone an unprecedented change in the last three years. He claimed the government has invigorated people with a new-found self-belief. Moreover, he said people's mandate in 2014 was not just for "regime change" but for bringing about a "systemic and fundamental change" in the country.
'Aadhaar will be used to fight black money menace'
Even as the government has been broadening Aadhaar's scope, PM Modi dropped a hint that Aadhaar will be used to address the black money menace. It will be used against "benami property," assets brought to hoard funds under proxy names. As the summit's theme was "The Irreversible Rise of India," Modi said Aadhaar has "irreversibly" changed lives of the poor and financially weaker sections.
'People should stop fighting the system'
Elaborating on good governance, Modi insisted that due to stability in the country's administrative system, NDA had clamped down on the constant tussle between people and the 'system.' After 70 years of independence, India was still struggling with bare necessities. Thus, NDA is committed to stopping "this fight with the system for small things like gas, booking of railway tickets, electricity, passport, I-T returns."
'Government received lot of important data post-demonetization'
Again defending demonetization, Modi clarified "The data that the government has got post-demonetization and consequent deposits in banks is a gold mine." He claimed that about 400-500 companies were functioning on one address, while one company had "thousands of accounts." He added that the government had revoked the registration of these companies and disallowed their directors from heading other companies. He also praised GST.
