Politics shifted from "potential to power" under PM Modi: Shah

Bengaluru (Karnataka) [India], February 23 : Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Thursday said that earlier one's status was decided by one's birth and not by potential, but during BJP's rule, this tradition was upturned that paved the way for India's journey from "potential to power".
Addressing a gathering in Bengaluru discussing 'Indian Polity-65 years Scenario and Paradigm Shift Under Modi Ji' organised by Samvada, the Home Minister said, "Earlier your status was decided by your birth and not by your potential. You will become a leader only if you are born into a power-driven certain family. But during BJP's rule, this tradition was upturned and political space was opened for everyone. This paved the way for India's journey from potential to power."
He further added that the emergence of new political leadership from across the socio-economic spectrum led to the crumbling of the age-old vices of casteism, appeasement and dynastic rule.
"This is one of the biggest achievements India made in the last nine years," he said.
Amit Shah shared his views on the trajectory of India's paradigm shift attained in the last nine years.
He said that the Modi style of governance adopted the bottom-to-top approach in which the last person in the lowest strata of the economic hierarchy is taken into consideration while formulating policies.
"BJP believes in the philosophy of integral humanism or Antyodaya. This philosophy forms the core of the BJP's policies. Could you imagine the pain of girls and women in more than 10 crore families that did not have toilets? It was Narendra Modi who thought of protecting their dignity and built toilets in every household," he said.
He also gave examples of providing gas cylinders to the 10 crore women who bore the pain of cooking food for their families in firewood at the cost of their health.
He urged people to vote after considering both the party and its leader.
"If you vote for an individual you are likely to make mistake in choosing your leader. But if you take both the party and its leader into consideration you are likely to select the right government," he said.
Shah said that the leaders of the parties are actually not individuals rather they are institutions that are anchored to the ideology of the party to which they belong.
He also appealed to the people to compare the performance of all the political parties in the last 75 years.
"Be it the Congress, the communists, the socialists or the BJP-all of these parties have ruled India in turns for pretty long periods. Every data related to the performance of these parties are available in the public domain. As aware citizens of this nation, you all should compare all the parties on the basis of their performances," he said.
He evoked the issue of BIMARU states and said that Congress got the opportunity to rule Bihar, undivided Uttar Pradesh, undivided Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan. But after a long Congress in the seventies, the Planning Commission named them BIMARU because of their horrible economic and human indices.
He also added that after the BJP ruled these states, they were all pulled out of their BIMARU status.