The nation has to stand up: Modi

New Delhi:  Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday presented his plan to change the country’s identity from “Scam India” to “Skilled India.”

Making a powerful reply in Parliament to the debate on the President’s address to a joint session on his government’s agenda, Modi spelled out his priorities, chief among them fighting poverty and empowering villages, with an emphasis on education. 

The President, Modi recalled, had used the word “Rurban – where the facilities are urban but the core is rural.” 
 
“Rich people can afford to send their kids to good school, afford good medical care…The government’s work is to listen to the poor, to work for the poor and live for them,” Modi said, stressing that education was the most powerful weapon against poverty.   

He began by asking to be excused if he made a mistake. “When a new member like me is speaking, I hope you will forgive me if I make mistakes,” he said, and made it clear that he is here to work to a plan and not “to criticise any government.”
 
The PM noted that various questions were raised by speakers from political parties on important issues during the debate and said, “all of them had a hope in them. I take this as good sign.” 
 
Elected members on either side of the political divide, Modi said, are the custodians of the people’s hope. He congratulated the people of India for electing a stable government, saying. “It is time to present India as a strong nation.”