Leader of the Opposition in the Legislative Assembly R. Ashok has highlighted the ‘transformative achievements’ of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s 11-year tenure, while flayed the record of 10 years of the Congress-led UPA rule under Manmohan Singh.
Addressing reporters in Mysuru on Thursday, Mr. Ashok claimed that India has reached new heights under the Modi government, and its GDP growth and infrastructure development have seen a three-fold jump compared to the progress achieved under the UPA regime.
Highlighting India’s rise on the global stage, Mr. Ashok said, “We were once struggling for the 10th or 11th spot in the world economy. Today, we are the fourth largest, surpassing Japan and the U.K.”, he said, adding that the country was once a bystander on the world stage but is now taken seriously.
Citing economists and global institutions to back these claims, he said there was a period when India led a ‘hand-to-mouth existence’ and had to import food for sustenance. Now India was not only self-sufficient and exported food, but was also a major global supplier of medicines, Mr. Ashok said.
India’s resilience came to the fore during Covid-19 pandemic when the country became a lead vaccine exporter, he said.
