Congress offered lip service, says PM

New Delhi: Slamming the Congress, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said, “Only lip service was provided. It (OROP) was difficult to implement. For me also it was not an easy decision, but I have high respect for the armed forces.

Whatever promise I had made is being implemented... The ramifications of it... are yet to be known.” He noted that he had made the pledge while addressing a rally of ex-servicemen in Rewari in Haryana on September 13, 2013 as the BJP’s prime ministerial candidate.

“The previous government proposed Rs 500 crore. We thought maybe it could go up to Rs 600-700 crore, but while calculating new things came up. While I untangled every aspect of the issue, we calculated that there would be an expense of around Rs 8,000-Rs 10,000 crore.

“This decision is inspired by patriotism,” he said, telling the armed forces and ex-servicemen that the government “is yours, is there to look into your grievances and will stand by you whenever required.”

“The country cannot develop through conflict but by dialogue. Elections will come and go. If there is only one solution to our problems, it is development. We are working on only one point, one mantra, one objective, one path and one goal — that is development,” he said. “It would have been better if the work of development had been completed in the last 60 years. A lot of work is pending. But only criticising previous governments will not help,” he said.