New Delhi: Speaking on the occasion of ‘National Unity Day’, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday (October 31) said that some “forces” outside and within India were attempting to destabilise it and spread a negative image of the country.
He again made a pitch for ‘one nation, one election’ and a “secular civil code”, which he said would be brought following Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel’s spirit of unity.
“With India’s growing strength and the growing sense of unity within India, some forces, some disorderly ideas, some mentalities … such forces are very disturbed. [Present] within India and outside it, such people are trying to spread instability and anarchy in India. They are engaged in harming India’s economic interests …
“Such forces want that … a negative image of India emerges to the world. These people are trying to target even India’s military,” Modi said, adding that they were engaged in “trying to create divisions in India in the name of caste” and “never want India to become developed”.
In a veiled attack on the opposition, he said “urban Naxals” were attempting to target India’s unity.
Holding that “a new model of urban Naxals emerged” as Naxalism was being eliminated from the jungle, Modi said: “We have to identify and battle those people who dream of breaking the nation, who believe in an ideology of destroying the nation, whose faces are masked.”
“… Today, if someone says ‘if we are one, we are safe’, these people … try to give it the wrong meaning,” Modi continued to say.
Modi added that there were people who were sceptical about India’s unification but that Patel made it possible.
His address came after he paid floral tributes to Patel, India’s first home minister, at the Statue of Unity.
Meanwhile, the Congress has accused the BJP of making “continuous efforts” to misappropriate Patel’s legacy.
“Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel is an immortal part of the nation’s history. He was also a stalwart Congressman. Continuous efforts are being made to (mis)appropriate his legacy by those whose ideological gurus opposed the Quit India Movement in which the Sardar was jailed for almost three years and who criticised the constitution, a key committee of which was chaired by the Sardar later,” wrote Congress MP Jairam Ramesh on X.
Today is the 149th birth anniversary of the indomitable Sardar, who was a hugely pivotal figure in our freedom movement and thereafter shaped the creation of post-1947 India while guiding it through the most turbulent years of 1948, 1949, and 1950.
Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel is… pic.twitter.com/6DJzEa2i9i
— Jairam Ramesh (@Jairam_Ramesh) October 31, 2024
“This only exposes the insecurities and hypocrisy of the (mis)appropriaters.”
In his address, Modi said that in the spirit of unity, the government was working on implementing ‘one nation, one election’ and a “secular civil code”.
“In line with our efforts on unity, we are now working on ‘one nation, one election’, which will strengthen India’s democracy, bring out an optimum outcome of India’s resources and which will bring a new speed in achieving the nation’s dream of ‘Viksit Bharat’ and a new prosperity.
“Today India is also moving toward ‘one nation, one civil code’ – that is, a secular civil code – and I had said this at the Red Fort: at the heart of this too is Sardar [Patel]’s inspiration of unity …”
Last month, the Union cabinet approved the report by the high-level committee headed by former President Ram Nath Kovind on the ‘one nation one election’ proposal that recommended simultaneous polls in the country to the Lok Sabha, state assemblies as well as local bodies (including panchayats and municipalities).
However, no timeline has been provided on its rollout yet.
Congress president and Rajya Sabha MP Mallikarjun Kharge said to reporters that Modi was attempting to “fool people” as any attempt to bring in simultaneous polls would require taking all political parties into confidence.
“What PM Modi has said, he will not do it, because when it comes in the parliament, he has to take everybody into confidence, then only this will happen. This is impossible, ‘one nation, one election’ is impossible, because several states have several problems. Regional problems are there. When we cannot give 2 crore jobs … Whatever he was supposed to do he is not doing, but these things he is saying to fool the people,” he said.