Porbandar: Taking a dig at Congress for losing powers in many states, senior BJP leader and Home Minister Rajnath Singh on Sunday said it did not listen to the advice of Mahatma Gandhi to work for the development of villages and poor.
Addressing a 'Vikas Parv' rally held to celebrate the completion of NDA government's two years in office, Singh said Gandhiji had given a call for 'gram swaraj' for the development of rural areas and the underprivileged sections.
"Congress was in power for 54 years and that is not a very short period of time to develop the country. But the Congress did not listen to the advice of Gandhiji which resulted it losing power gradually in most parts of the country," he said.
On the other hand, Singh said, the NDA government had dedicated itself to the welfare of rural areas and the poor, following Gandhi's principle.
Singh said the influence of Congress is now limited to only some hilly states like Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Meghalaya, Manipur, Mizoram besides Karnataka.
Highlighting various development initiatives taken by the Narendra Modi government, the home minister said due to its farmer-friendly policies, farm income will double by 2022.
He said Foreign Direct Investment has reached an all-time high of more than $50 billion and India has now become the fastest growing economy in the world.
Alleging that the previous UPA governments were steeped in corruption, Mr Singh said malady has gone away from the high places and governance has become transparent now.
The home minister said the central government is going to get Rs 2,00,000 crore revenue from the auction of coal mines through a very clean and transparent policy.
