PM Modi holds massive roadshow in Shimla to mark 8 years of his govt

Prime minister Narendra Modi received a grand welcome in Himachal Pradesh on Tuesday as a huge number of supporters gathered to witness a roadshow in Shimla to mark the eighth anniversary of the Bharatiya Janata Party’s government at the centre.

The PM also addressed a rally in the hill state, which will hold an assembly election later this year.

“Today is a very special day in my life. I am privileged that I was given a chance to honour my motherland. I am thankful to you all who have come in such a large number to bestow their blessings,” Modi said. He further said that in the last eight years of his government, he had never thought of himself as the PM – but as the ‘pradhan sevak’ of the country.

Taking a jibe at the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance government that was in power at the centre before the BJP, PM Modi said the government before 2014 considered ‘corruption as an essential part of the system’. It had succumbed to corruption instead of fighting it, he said.

“The country was watching that the money of the schemes was looted before reaching the needy,” he said, adding, “Before 2014, the headlines in newspapers were dominated by cases of scam, corruption…the time has changed now.”

The prime minister also released the 11th instalment of cash under the Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi (PM-KISAN) scheme. This will enable the transfer of around Rs. 21,000 crore to more than 10 crore beneficiary farmer families, news agency ANI reported.

PM Modi last visited Himachal Pradesh on December 27 to address a rally at the Paddal ground in chief minister Jai Ram Thakur’s home district of Mandi. That was to mark the fourth anniversary of the BJP government in the state.