Offering freebies for votes 'very dangerous' for country: PM Modi

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday (July 16) warned that offering freebies for votes is “very dangerous” for the development of the country and urged people to be “very careful” with this culture what he termed as “revadi culture”.

PM Modi used revadi, a popular north Indian sweet often distributed during festivals, as a metaphor for freebies being promised by various parties to grab power and said the people, especially the youth should guard against this.

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He gave a call to defeat this thinking collectively and remove the freebies culture from the politics of the country.

Addressing a gathering in Kaitheri village in Orai tehsil of Jalaun, Uttar Pradesh, after inaugurating the 296-km Bundelkhand Expressway constructed at a cost of around ₹14,850 crore, Modi said, “The distance from Chitrakoot to Delhi has been reduced by 3-4 hours by the Bundelkhand Expressway, but its benefit is much more than that. This expressway will not only give speed to vehicles here, but it will accelerate the industrial progress of entire Bundelkhand.”

The “double-engine” government now was ensuring the major transformation of the state with fast-improving connectivity and much better law and order, he said.

Modi asserted that no such work should be done that is not related to the present aspirations and better future of the country.

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The thinking behind every decision and policy should be that development of the country would be accelerated, the Prime minister said, adding that it should be ensured that all those things that harm and negatively impact the country’s development are kept away.
Modi said the country has got a very good opportunity for development and it should not let this go.

“We have to ensure maximum development in this era and take the country to new heights and build a new India,” he said.

Modi said the new India also faces a challenge, which if overlooked now, would be harmful to this generation.

“Your present will be lost and your future pushed into darkness. It is important to be vigilant”, he added.

“In our country today, attempts are being made to bring a culture of garnering votes by distributing revadis. This revadi culture is very dangerous for the development of the country. People of the country and especially the youth need to guard against this culture,” Modi said.

“The revadi culture people think they will buy out people by distributing free revadis. We have to jointly defeat this thinking of theirs. Have to remove revadi culture from the country’s politics,” Modi said without taking any names.

He said those indulging in revadi culture will never make new expressways, airports and defence corridors.

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Modi’s remarks were targeted at parties that have been resorting to giving away freebies, especially before polls.

“Away from the revadi culture, we are focused on fulfilling people’s aspirations by building new roads and rail routes”, he said.

The Bundelkhand Expressway passes through seven districts of Uttar Pradesh. The time taken from Chitrakoot to Delhi by the Bundelkhand expressway would now be six hours, officials said.

Modi laid the foundation stone for the construction of the expressway on February 29, 2020.

(With inputs from agencies)