On June 25, 2019, Prime Minister Narendra Modi addressed the newly elected Lok Sabha in his reply to the Motion of Thanks on the President’s address to the House.

Excerpts from his address:

… Nearly 60 Hon’ble Members of Parliament participated in this discussion… I am grateful to everyone, including Mr Adhir Ranjan Chaudhary, Mr T R Baalu, Mr Dayanidhi Maran… Ms Mahua Moitra… Mohammad Azam Khan, Asaduddin Owaisi… for making this discussion meaningful.

It is true that we all are humans and the influence of the last 30 days still lingers… Therefore, a little impact of the election speeches was still visible here… After several decades, the nation has given out a strong mandate. They have once again voted the same government to power with greater strength… every Indian can feel proud of the fact that our voter is so aware. The voter loves the nation more than himself and takes decision for the nation…

In 2014, the nation gave us one opportunity as an experiment to come out of the circumstances. But the mandate of 2019 was given out by examining us in every way possible. They have tested us and understood us and only on that basis have once again voted us to power. This is the greatest strength of democracy…

I don’t think about winning or losing. My thoughts go beyond it… We have always worked with the spirit that those who have no one have government beside them… After Independence, we have inadvertently accepted a culture and have let it spread wherein the common man had to overcome a lot of hurdles and challenges in the system to avail his rights. I am not accusing anyone, but shouldn’t the common man be provided his rights by the system in a hassle-free way?…

Many new things have been told here. A few harsh things have also been said that reflect the election mood… However, we cannot make the mistake of saying that ‘no one can demean our power’ that was said here. We cannot waste our time demeaning anyone… You be happy with your loftiness. You are floating so high that you are unable to see the ground and have been detached from the roots… Therefore, your high-headedness is good for me. I hope you remain the same…

It is true that a few people are used to being praised and mentioned. Not being mentioned is taken as an insult by them… I can challenge that they have not praised Atalji’s (Atal Bihari Vajpayee) government or mentioned his good initiatives even for once. Leave Atalji, they haven’t even praised the P V Narasimha Rao government. Moreover, have they mentioned anything about Dr Manmohan Singhji in the speech now? I am nothing compared to those great people!… But you can verify: from the Red Fort, I am the first Prime Minister who said twice that every Central and state government since Independence has made contribution to the country’s development…

This is a part of our mindset… Narasimha Raoji should have received Bharat Ratna award during his tenure; Manmohan Singhji should have received Bharat Ratna award after his first term… But people outside ‘the family’ never receive anything. But we are different. We have never worried about the party to which Pranab da (Pranab Mukherjee) belonged or for which party he had worked. Our decision to confer Bharat Ratna award on him was purely on the basis of his contribution to the nation…

We too could have celebrated our victory. But we did not choose that path. We could have thought of resting for a while after six months of election preparedness, but we don’t like that… We have worked without getting involved in politics and without considering any event as a government event…

In the same House, when India had risen up from 13th to 11th position in terms of economy, there was a great enthusiasm and benches were tapped. It was projected as a great achievement. But now as India has improved to 6th position, the enthusiasm was lost… How long will be so lofty that we are unable to see the ground? Why shouldn’t a 5 trillion dollars economy be the dream of all of us?…

We need to find ways whereby India can enter the group of top five economies, exports are increased, Make in India is promoted further and the youngsters in the realm of start-ups are encouraged. We need to promote ‘Jai Jawan Jai Kisan Jai Vigyan and Jai Anusandhan. We need to ensure employment opportunities for the youth…

We will continue with our fight against corruption. We are being rebuked for not putting a few people in jail. This is not Emergency period that we will put anyone in prison. This is democracy. The judiciary is there to do this task. We work lawfully… Whatever we do. we will be doing it with honesty. We will not do anything with bitter feelings against anyone…

I won’t take long but with respect to Gandhi-150 and Independence-75… I would say, for some reason, everything was centered around rights. Everyone was concerned with rights. This is an opportunity whereby we can ensure a paradigm shift within the country by carrying it towards duties from rights…

“In today’s modern materialist world where conflicts are seen everywhere, everyone talks about their rights and convenience; one rarely talks about the duties. This is the reason for the conflicts. This is the reality. We fight for rights and facilities only, but if we forget the duties in doing so, then these rights and facilities will not be left to us.” It is our responsibility to commemorate that great personality who said these words… That great personality said these words on 14th July, 1951, when the Congress manifesto was released before the elections. At that time, the great personality, Pandit Nehru, read this one paragraph during the announcement.

Can we move ahead with the dream of Pandit Nehru of 1951 and ensure its fulfillment?…

Come let us move beyond the boundaries of politics for building a New India and a modern India. The nation is bigger than politics. The nation is bigger than any political party.

(From narendramodi.in website)