PM Modi has courage to take tough decisions, says Amit Shah

Union home minister Amit Shah on Tuesday called Narendra Modi a decisive administrator and said the Prime Minister does not take decisions based on public perception or to please people. He said that Modi takes decisions for the people’s good.

Shah underlined that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)’s manifesto is not merely a piece of paper under Modi’s leadership. He added the party has given enough evidence to show how committed it is to fulfil its promises. Shah was referring to issues like the nullification of the Constitution’s Article 370 to end Jammu and Kashmir’s special status in August and the passage of the Citizenship (Amendment) Act or CAA last month.

“The manifesto was only considered a piece of paper. We have fulfilled 90% of what was promised in 2014,” he said at the launch of Karmayodha Granth, a book on Modi. Shah and other Union ministers Nitin Gadkari and Smriti Irani have authored chapters of the book.

Amid the criticism the government is facing over the CAA, Shah said that Modi does not take decisions based on how they will be perceived internationally.

He said that Modi has the “courage to take tough decisions” and credited him for shaping the foreign and security policy and for ending three “nasoor [ulcers] of appeasement, dynasty, and casteism”.

“He [Modi] gave a new shape to the foreign policy. Opting for the principle of equality, he has neither tried to play big brother to any country nor caved in before a bigger one. He also made it clear that if anyone attacks us, we will retaliate. Through the airstrikes [on a terror camp in Pakistan last year following the Pulwama attack on paramilitary troopers] and the surgical strikes [across the Line of Control in 2016] , he sent out a message that those who cross our border will have to face the consequences.”

He called the BJP’s return to power with a bigger mandate last year at the Centre proof of the mandate for their governance. “In a democracy, the biggest certificate of [good] governance is acceptance by the people and that has been shown again and again. When Modi took over, the institutions had been destroyed… It has been six years and there is not a single accusation of corruption against him.”

Shah said that the government has been conscious to ensure that development projects are not limited to any one section. “We ended the controversy about whether the government favours the farmer or the industry, rural or urban.”

Shah spoke at length about Modi’s administrative abilities that he added came to the fore during the rebuilding of Gujarat after a massive earthquake and when he had to deal with the riots of 2002. “When he left Gujarat, development had reached every corner of the state. From Dalits to tribals, all were included in the development agenda.”