BJP rolls in top guns in Varanasi for PM Narendra Modi record victory
External affairs minister S Jaishankar on Sunday emphasised the need for India to have a strong and decisive leader like Prime Minister Narendra Modi for the present decade as global turbulence shows no signs of abating.
“Push the right button for the Modi guarantee,” Jaishankar said while addressing a large gathering at Benaras Club in Varanasi.
The minister is among the big guns deployed by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the constituency, with party president Jagat Prakash Nadda and Union commerce and industry minister Piyush Goyal landing on Sunday and home minister Amit Shah slated to arrive on Monday evening to ensure that PM Modi wins the seat again by a record margin.
Jaishankar pitched for Modi’s third term as PM, saying that domestic achievements of India in the past decade have been the main reason why the country is globally respected.
“You need a leader who balances Bharat First with Vasudev Kutumbkum and only then India can be Vishwabandhu… we have done 36 plurilaterals and we have shown we can balance America and Russia, Iran and Israel, G-7 and the Global South,” Jaishankar said.
He said India under Modi in the past five years has met the challenges arising out of the Ukraine war, the Chinese army transgression on the LAC, cross-border terrorism, the Covid pandemic and abrogation of Article 370. To enhance national security, the country needs Modi’s “Make in India” approach, he said.
The minister said under previous governments, one rupee used to travel from Delhi and only 15 paise reached the intended beneficiary, which was no longer the case.
“Today, development works in the country are gaining momentum and behind it is the honest thinking and digital revolution. Due to the digital age, we are able to identify the beneficiaries, otherwise there was a time when one rupee used to travel from Delhi, only 15 paise reached the beneficiary. On the contrary, today every single rupee goes directly into the bank accounts of the beneficiaries,” he said.
Earlier, Jaishankar interacted with educationists, schoolchildren, members of the Tamil community and Kashi’s intellectuals to convince people that India under Modi will not only grow manifold economically but also become a nation with comprehensive international power.
On a two-day visit to the poll-bound Kashi, where voting is scheduled to be held on June 1, the minister said the key to Viksit Bharat 2047 (a developed India by 2047) was economic growth, stability and robust national security, all of which could only be provided by a leader like Narendra Modi. Addressing private educationists at Sunbeam School, Jaishankar explained at length that India needs to compete with the world, including adversarial powers such as China, so that the dream of a developed India could be achieved.
While the BJP is comfortably poised to retain the seat, the party is leaving nothing to chance in the campaign. Goyal landed late Sunday night to address young entrepreneurs, the Banarsi Textile Industry Association, food service workers and businessmen on Monday. UP chief minister Yogi Adityanath has also shifted base from Lucknow to Varanasi and Gorakhpur to ensure that the BJP sweeps Poorvanchal in the high-stakes Lok Sabha elections in the political bellwether state of Uttar Pradesh.