They demanded proof of surgical strike too: PM Narendra Modi attacks Opposition on farm law protests

NEW DELHI: PM Narendra Modi on Tuesday made a scathing attack on the Congress-led Opposition for opposing the Centre's farm laws, saying they demand evidence of the Indian Army’s surgical strike in PoK, opposed the Yoga Day and installation of Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel's statue in Gujarat too.

“Four years ago, around this time the country's bravehearts carried out surgical strike and destroyed bases of terror. But these people (opposition) were demanding for evidence of the surgical strike. By opposing the surgical strike, they've cleared their intention before the country,” the PM said.

The PM went on to say that “when the world was celebrating International Yoga Day, under India's initiative, they were opposing Yoga in India. When Statue of Unity - made after Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel - was being unveiled, they were opposing it. None of their tall leaders has visited the Statue of Unity so far.”

Training his guns at the opposition, the PM said that “for years these people (opposition) didn't do anything to empower our security forces. Air Force kept asking for Rafale but they never listened to them. When our govt signed a contract with France government for Rafale aircraft, they started having a problem.”

The PM made these remarks after on inaugurating six mega projects amounting to Rs 521 crores under the Namami Gange Mission in Uttarakhand. The Prime Minister inaugurated several sewage treatment plants and their upgradations today located in Haridwar, Rishikesh, among other regions.

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A Ganga Museum, to showcase the river rejuvenation activities and its biodiversity, at Chandi Ghat in Haridwar was also inaugurated by the Prime Minister today.

Governor Baby Rani Maurya, Chief Minister Trivendra Singh Rawat, Union Ministers Gajendra Singh Shekhawat, Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank, MoS Ratanlal Kataria, among others also participated in the event.

"In the past decades, huge initiatives were taken up to clean river Ganga but those initiatives had neither public participation nor farsightedness. As a result, the water of Ganga was never cleaned," PM Modi said.

"Ganga brings prosperity to almost half of the country`s population. Therefore, non-stop flow and clean water in the river is very much needed. If the old steps were repeated then the condition would have stayed the same. But we went ahead with `nayi soch, naya approach`. We did not restrict it to just cleaning up Ganga, but made it the country`s largest river conservation project," he added.

According to him the four-point steps included firstly creating a network of sewage treatment plants that would stop the flow of dirty water in the river. The second was to make sewage treatment plants taking the needs of the coming 10-15 years into account.

"Further, 100 big cities and 5,000 villages located along the Ganga were made open-defecation free and fourthly, the tributaries of Ganga are also being cleaned up with full force," he said.

The Prime Minister said that currently under Namami Gange Mission, projects worth Rs 30,000 crores are either completed or are underway.

He said that in the upcoming "Kumbh Mela" at Haridwar people participating would be able to witness a cleaner Ganga with the government`s efforts. The Prime Minister also launched Jal Jeevan Mission`s logo and guidelines earlier today.

He also said that the Jal Jeevan Mission should also be taken seriously by the State governments to ensure water reaches every household in the country.

The Prime Minister also pointed out that now farmers in the country are free to sell their produce to anyone and anywhere at their discretion, but the Opposition does not want that to happen.

"They do not want farmers to sell their produce in the open markets. They want their vehicles to be seized like it used to happen earlier. By burning their equipment (tractor) they are disrespecting farmers today," the Prime Minister said."