Union minister Ashwini Vaishnaw believes that the Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) historic victory in the Gujarat assembly elections proved that people chose good governance over political shortcuts adopted by some parties.
The minister for railways, communications, and information technology said some parties tried to take shortcuts in the Gujarat elections by offering freebies and fighting on the basis of caste and religion.
“It is clear from the historic victory of the BJP in Gujarat that the public trusted the development and good governance that happened in the country in the last eight years under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Even where we have not won the elections, our vote share has increased, or there has been a marginal shortage of votes for our victory,” Vaishaw said.
The IT minister noted that the issue of the country’s development will be decisive in the 2024 general elections as well.
“Today, if we look at the progress made in the field of Digital India, then 45 crore Jan Dhan accounts have been opened. Through these, an amount of ₹26 lakh crore has been transferred directly to the accounts of the beneficiaries under various schemes”, he said.
Referring to former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi’s statement from the 1980’s that for every rupee allocated for development, only 15 paise reaches beneficiary, Vaishnaw said things are different now.
“Today, in Digital India, the entire rupee reaches the person’s account. ₹2.2 lakh crore has been saved due to this,” Vaishnav said.
“Similarly, UPI transactions worth ₹12 lakh crore took place in November, and 219 crore vaccines have been provided through registration on the CoWIN platform so far. 1.74 crore farmers, 1,260 mandis, and 2.36 lakh traders have joined the e-Nam portal. Today 4.6 lakh common service centers are working in the country providing services to the people.”
The minister added that transparency has increased with the adoption of IT services under the PM Modi-led government.
“Whether it is faceless IT assessment or online refund, or auction of coal mines and 5G spectrum, transparency has increased in all. Running a campaign against corruption, the government has seized ₹4,300 crore worth of illegal assets. Registration of 1.75 lakh shell companies has been cancelled, and black money worth ₹1.25 lakh crore has been seized,” Vaishnaw said.