Prime Minister tears into opposition over purported 'Modi phobia'

Lays foundation of India's longest 341 km Purvanchal Expressway

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday tore into the opposition trinity of Samajwadi Party (SP), Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) and Congress over their purported ‘Modi phobia’ even as he slammed these parties for their alleged caste-based, corrupt and partisan politics.

Addressing a public meeting in Azamgarh district, Modi, without explicitly taking names, said the opposition was only engaging in their anti-Modi agenda and had no interest in serving the people.

He noted parties dreaming to dislodge Modi were misusing the names of dalit pantheon Bhimrao Ambedkar and socialist leader Ram Manohar Lohia. He also charged them with furthering nepotism while befooling the poor, dalits and minorities. “Those who did not see eye to eye have joined hands to counter Modi,” the PM said with veiled reference to SP president Akhilesh Yadav and BSP chief Mayawati.

He attacked Congress over purported flip flop on minorities’ issues, especially women rights, including triple talaq and ‘halala’ saying the party only pretended to be championing their cause, since it had never cared for the rights of millions of Muslim women.

Modi referred to welfare schemes, including Jan Dhan, free gas cylinder to the poor, steep hike in kharif crop procurement price and Modicare (free medical insurance cover) to buttress his claim of working for common man after coming to power.

He had arrived in Azamgarh to lay foundation of India’s longest access controlled Purvanchal Expressway, which is estimated to cost more than Rs 230 billion. The 6-lane expressway is projected to be completed in 3 years and provide seamless connectivity between Eastern Uttar Pradesh districts and National Capital Region (NCR) via Agra-Lucknow and Yamuna Expressways.

It would provide high speed connectivity till Patna in Bihar with link roads, apart from linking other important UP towns of Gorakhpur, Varanasi and Allahabad.

Azamgarh is the parliamentary constituency of Samajwadi Party (SP) patriarch Mulayam Singh Yadav. The ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is targetting the pocket borough of key opposition party leaders in run up to the 2019 Lok Sabha poll. The constituency has sizeable population of backward castes and Muslim.

Meanwhile, the PM waxed eloquent on UP chief minister Yogi Adityanath over governance. “Under his (Adityanath) leadership, the perception about UP is turning positive. He is ensuring big and small businesses flourish in the state.”

Modi observed the expressway would prove to an industrial corridor and boost economic activities and jobs in the entire region. “The farmers would be able to transport their farm produce speedily to Delhi mandis.”

Purvanchal Expressway would traverse 9 districts viz. Lucknow, Barabanki, Faizabad, Ambedkarnagar, Amethi, Sultanpur, Azamgarh, Mau and Ghazipur. It would also comprise a 3 km runway at Kudebhar (Sultanpur) for landing and take-off by fighter planes during exigencies. It would include provisions to lay oil/gas pipeline in future if needed.