Rajnath Singh hits out at Rahul Gandhi, says PM not going abroad for holidaying

The Home Minister was addressing a public rally in the city as part of the Jan Kalyan Parv of the BJP marking the completion of one year of NDA government at the Centre.

“The Prime Minister did some plain speaking in China. China issues stapled visa to citizens of Jammu and Kashmir and Arunachal. But Prime Minister told China in plain terms that Kashmir valley and Arunachal Pradesh have been integral part of India and would continue to remain so. This is the reason the PM visits various countries. Another reason is the Make in India initiative. But our rivals are not understanding the Make in India programme at all.

Make in India is for creating world class industries and produce goods in the country,” Rajnath said while seeking to explain frequent foreign tours of Narendra Modi.

Since being sworn-in as the PM last May, Modi has visited 17 countries in his first year in office. But Rajnath claimed that Modi’s predecessor Manmohan Singh had also visited almost equal number of countries in his first year as prime minister of India.

“Today, Made in India is not a super quality brand among foreign countries. But now, we want to produce world class quality goods and overtake brands like Made in Germany and Made in Japan,” said Rajnath.

The Home Minster further said that after the launch of Make in India initiative and extending limit of foreign direct investment (FDI) to 49 per cent in many sectors,  the government had received commitment of FDI worth Rs28 billion dollars in one year alone.

“Fighter jets, helicopters and weapons that our army men and paramilitary forces use are mostly purchased from foreign countries. We purchase weapons worth lakhs of rupees.  But now, we have decided and told the four big countries, from which we buy weapons that we will purchase weapons from you only if you invest half the amount that you get by selling weapon to India in setting up defence equipment manufacturing units in India,” said the home Minister.

Rajnath also responded to Rahul Gandhi’s’s charge that Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD) which formulates education policies in the country was run by Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), the parent organisation of the BJP.

“Congress leader Rahul Gandhi says RSS runs education ministry. But he does not know that RSS does not run (any organisation) but walks (an ideology) and people join it. The ideology of RSS is Vasudhev Kutumbkama (entire world is a family). India is the only country in the world where 72 sects of Islam exist. First church in the world was built in Kerala and Parsis were accommodated by India. This the culture of our country and the RSS is custodian of this culture,” said Rajnath.

He alleged that Congress had manipulated Muslims by making them feel vulnerable to stay in power.