'Achhe din' have arrived for the poor: Amit Shah in Kerala

Hitting out at the opposition parties for their criticism on the performance of the three-year old NDA government at the Centre, BJP chiefAmit Shah on Sunday claimed that "achhe din" (good days) had indeed arrived for the poor people of the country.

Addressing a meeting of special invitees here, Shah, who is on a three-day visit to Kerala as a part of his 95-day countrywide tour ahead of the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, said the poor, who did not even have the basic facilities, benefited from the 106 schemes of the Centre.

"Achhe din has come for those families," he added. "My answer to those who ask where is the achhe din, it is there in the houses of those who have received gas, power connections, toilets and opened bank accounts under the Jan Dhan Yojana," said Shah.

In contrast to the previous "corruption-ridden" Congress-led UPA government, the NDA, led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, completed three years without any corruption charges, he claimed.

The Modi government had unveiled a "new development model" for the country which would benefit all the sections of the society, added Shah.

He said the Army's surgical strikes, following the Uri terror attack in Jammu and Kashmir last year, became possible due to the "strong political decision" taken by the prime minister, which was "lacking" during the previous regime, even though several terrorist attacks had taken place.

He also rubbished the allegation of the opposition that the economic growth of the country had slowed down and claimed that in the last three years, the GDP had touched 7.1 per cent from 4.4 per cent, adding that the "main objective of the BJP is to transform the country into a strong economic power".

Shah said the Centre had sanctioned development projects worth Rs 1.5 lakh crore for Kerala.

The National Democratic Alliance (NDA) had also succeeded in putting an end to "family rule, casteism and politics of appeasement", he claimed.

"You (people of Kerala) are electing either the LDF or the UDF in the state. But, the rule of Communists has come to an end the world over and likewise, the Congress has also lost its mass base," he said, adding that hence, the BJP should be given a chance in the southern state.

Shah, who arrived here in the morning, addressed a series of meetings of the state office-bearers, district presidents and morcha in-charges of the saffron party. He asked those at the meetings to reach out to the minority communities and Dalits in the state.

Soon after arriving here, the BJP chief garlanded the statue of social reformer Ayyankali, who had fought for the rights of the oppressed in Kerala and played a vital role in cleansing the social evils in the society.

"His (Ayyankali's) mammoth efforts to eradicate the caste apartheid through innovation and resistance inspire us even today," he later wrote on Twitter.

Shah also met the heads of the Syro Malankara Catholic church and the Latin church in Kerala. Cardinal Baselious Cleemis, Major Archbishop of the Syro Malankara Catholic church, and Archbishop Soosa Pakiam, the head of the Latin Catholic church and President of the Kerala Catholic Bishops Conference (KCBC), met the BJP chief.

The meeting was held at the Major Archbishop's house here in the evening.

On Saturday, at Kochi, Shah had held talks with church leaders, led by Syro Malabar church head Cardinal Mar George Alencherry.