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Chosen by the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance as its leader to become prime minister for the third time, Modi said the ruling combine is committed to the constitutional principle of ‘sarva panth sambhava (interfaith harmony)’ and mutual trust was at the core of this bloc.
‘If we look at numbers, then this is the strongest coalition government in the history of coalitions,’ he said, asserting that the NDA has been the most successful pre-poll alliance since its existence for nearly 30 years, out of which it has served out three full terms and is set to start the fourth.
“We have never lost. Our conduct following June 4 shows that we know how to digest victory,” the prime minister said at the meeting of the NDA Parliamentary Party, and attacked opposition parties.
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Modi said he has been missing quality debates and participation in Parliament for 10 years and expressed hope that it may happen this time.
He said he hopes opposition leaders will be guided by national interest. ‘They may be in opposition to us but not to the nation. I hope they will arrive in Parliament with the sentiment of national interest,’ Modi said.
“There were efforts to not acknowledge this very victory, to cast a ‘shadow of defeat’ on this victory. But all such efforts remained fruitless… Such things ‘die very young’, and it happened,” Modi said.
NDA leaders, including N Chandrababu Naidu (TDP), Nitish Kumar (JDU), Eknath Shinde (Shiv Sena), Chirag Paswan (LJP-RV), H D Kumaraswamy (JDS), Ajit Pawar (NCP), Anupriya Patel (Apna Dal-S), Pawan Kalyan (Jana Sena), attended the meeting along with newly elected Lok Sabha members from the ruling alliance.
With Parliament often witnessing frequent disruptions in the past due to deep acrimony between the ruling coalition and opposition parties, Modi struck a conciliatory note.
Having a ‘bahumat (majority)’ is necessary to form government but ‘sarvmat (consensus or unanimity)’ is much needed for running the country, he said.
“I want to assure people of the country that you have given us the good fortune to run the government by handing us a majority, and it has then become our responsibility that we continuously strive to ensure unanimity in taking the country forward,” Modi said.
‘For me the NDA stands for New India, Developed India, Aspirational India,’ he said, lauding the leading architects of the alliance, including Atal Bihari Vajpayee, George Fernandes, Bal Thackeray, Sharad Yadav and Parkash Singh Badal.
Modi congratulated the victorious NDA leaders and said he must salute the lakhs of ground workers who worked to ensure this victory.
‘This is the most successful alliance in the history of our country. It has completed three successful terms and is now entering its fourth. The NDA is not a grouping of parties that have come together to get power, it is committed to the principle of ‘nation first’,’ he added.
He noted that the BJP-led NDA is in power in seven of the 10 states where Scheduled Tribes are in large numbers and also in Goa and North Eastern states where Christians are in sizeable numbers.
Modi said that the ‘INDI alliance’ parties have already started saying they came together only for the Lok Sabha polls. Such an approach shows their character and hunger for power, he said.
‘Our 10 years were just a trailer. We will work much harder and faster for the development of our country. People know that we will deliver,’ Modi said.
The prime minister said he had been missing parliamentary debates and hoped that the opposition MPs also contribute to nation-building when they come to Parliament.
Taking a dig at the Congress, he said the opposition party could not even touch the 100-seat mark, and that their total seats in the last three Lok Sabha polls were fewer than the BJP’s tally in this election alone.
‘We are glad to note that for the first time one of our representatives has emerged victorious in Kerala. We have been having a brilliant performance in Arunachal Pradesh. In Sikkim also, we (NDA) have almost registered a ‘clean sweep’. In Andhra Pradesh, it is a historic victory. The way NDA’s vote share has increased in Tamil Nadu clearly shows what is in the offing,’ Modi said.
‘In the last 10 years, we worked to make the country touch new heights of success. A common thing that exists amongst all the leadership pillars of the NDA is good governance,’ Modi said.
‘Whenever given the chance to serve, each and every leader of the NDA has ensured good governance across Bharat. The NDA has become synonymous with good governance,’ he said.