New Delhi, July 11 – The first Budget of the new BJP-led government makes an attempt to revive the legacies of Hindutva icons like Syama Prasad Mookerjee and Deendayal Upadhyay.
Various development programmes and schemes are named after Mookerjee and Upadhyay. The two leaders were associated with Jan Sangh that laid the foundation of the BJP. Another scheme has been named after Madan Mohan Malviya, a Congress leader who was associated with the Hindu Mahasabha in his early days.
Finance Minister Arun Jaitley announced that the Rozgaar Mission named after Mookerjee would boost the development of rural India. The scheme is based on Gujarat’s Rurban development model of urbanisation of rural areas.
“The Mission will be launched to deliver integrated projectbased infrastructure in the rural areas, which will also include development of economic activities and skill development. The preferred mode of delivery would be through PPPs while using various scheme funds for financing,” Jaitley said.
The Deendayal Upadhyay Gram Jyoti Yojna – a Rs.500 crore rural electrification programme – aims at augmenting power supply in rural areas. “Power is a vital input for economic growth and the government is committed to providing 24×7 uninterrupted power supply to all homes,” Jaitley said.
A school assessment programme was announced at a cost of Rs.30 crore called the ‘Pandit Madan Mohan Malviya New Teachers Training Programme’. It is aimed at infusing new training tools and motivating teachers. The naming of the new programmes was not restricted to Hindutva icons alone.
The government named a centre for higher education after socialist icon Jai Prakash Narayan, who started the anti-Congress political movement in the 1970s. Jaitley said the J.P. Narayan National Centre for Excellence in Humanities would be set up in Madhya Pradesh.
Besides these leaders, the ruling BJP also sought to appropriate the legacy of one of the tallest Congress leaders – Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, the country’s first Home Minister. PM Narendra Modi has praised the ‘Iron Man’ of Indian politics on many occasions.
Jaitley announced that the Centre would help in building a statue of Sardar Patel. “Sardar Patel stands as the symbol of the unity of the country. To support the Gujarat government in this initiative to erect the Statue of Unity, I propose to set aside a sum of Rs.200 crore,” he said.
-INDIA TODAY
