New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi gives his ministerial colleagues all the freedom and encourages them to take decisions, Information and Broadcasting Minister Prakash Javadekar said yesterday while remarking that "policy paralysis" had come to an end under the new regime.
"He gives us so much freedom and has only one mantra for us -- that 'you should have the courage to take decisions. Listen to all, but take decisions which are best for the country'," Javadekar said with reference to Modi.
Javadekar outright dismissed suggestions that the prime minister wielded too much authority over his colleagues or had ticked off a minister for wearing jeans or that there had been any such instances.
"We have got the person with the best dressing sense and he will not bar someone from wearing certain clothes. The PMO is not so childish.
"To imagine such things, it is an unsuccessful attempt to cause damage to his (Modi's) image. But we are directly connected with the people," Javadekar said even as he claimed that some people from Congress were spreading misinformation.
As his dispensation marks 100 days in power, the minister said that people had chosen the NDA government for five years and not just hundred days. He averred that during this period, however, "policy paralysis" has ended and decisions are being taken in all ministries.
He added that the prices of petrol have been reduced twice recently and steps taken in these 100 days to keep the prices of food items in check.
Javadekar said that in Rajya Sabha recently, former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had congratulated him when he was told that 17 projects which had been referred to the Environment and Forests ministry by the previous regime had been cleared now after NDA had come to power.
Javadekar, who also holds charge of the Ministry of Environment and Forests in the Modi government, said that proposals like that for a BSF post in Kutch or relating to a broken fence along the Bangladesh border, which were held back, had been cleared by the NDA government.
Javadekar said that the investors have gained confidence now as the economy is back on the growth path. He said that the GDP growth rate would once more rise to 8.4 per cent and beyond.
He was speaking at an event organised by a TV channel.
Congress leader Deepender Hooda who, too, was taking part in the event, said that the government may have reduced the prices of petrol but those of diesel had risen. He said that it appeared the government's policies were not in favour of the poor and the farmers.
Hooda said the recent uptick in GDP growth was a result of the previous Congress-led UPA government's performance in its last days in power and credit should be given to it for that.
Samajwadi Party leader Dharmedra Yadav said that people, especially, the youth had voted for NDA with a lot of expectations and all the promises, including those regarding inflation and black money, should be fulfilled.
TMC leader Satabdi Roy said that the same people behave differently in and out of power.
She agreed with Yadav that the people had voted in the Modi government with a lot of expectations. But curbs on price rise, job creation, has not happened yet, she claimed.
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