Amit Shah says education is important, 'No nation can develop with an army of illiterates"

Addressing at the inaugural session of the National Conference on "Delivering Democracy", Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Wednesday said that no country can advance with an army of illiterates and that it is the government's responsibility to educate them.

"I was trolled but I would like to say again that 'no nation can develop with the army of illiterates'. It is the government's responsibility to educate them. Somebody who doesn't know his constitutional rights can not contribute to the nation, as much as it can be done", Amit Shah said.

The Union Minister cited the development attempts made by former Chief Minister of Gujarat and current Prime Minister of India Narendra Modi in the field of education in Gujarat when he was the CM of the state. Shah termed the then BJP's decision to make Prime Minister Narendra Modi the Chief Minister of Gujrat "rare" because he (Narendra Modi) had no real experience of running administrations in 2001.

"In 2001, the BJP decided that Narendra Modi will become the CM of Gujrat. It was a rare occasion because he had no real experience of running administrations until then", Shah asserted.

Shah lauds PM Modi for Gujarat leadership, promoting education

"The state was reeling under a lot of pressure after facing the Kutch earthquake. He tried to change things and did a lot of work on development and transparency. When Modi Ji became the CM of Gujrat, the state, the state had 67 per cent enrolment and 37 per cent dropout. He started a 'Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao' programme to promote gender ratio and education. This eventually saw 100 per cent enrolment and also took steps to ensure dropout ratio reduced to almost zero," he said.

"After the 1960s and by 2014 people doubted if the multi-party democratic system can be successful. People wondered if the system failed as it didn't yield fruitful results. With great patience, they took a decision and gave power to PM Modi with an absolute majority", Shah further added.

Amit Shah claims Congress of having 'policy paralysis'

The Union Minister further criticised the previous Congress-led Central government and said that during their reign there was a 'policy paralysis'.

The Union Minister said, "What government did we have at the time of 2014 polls? We had a government where cabinet ministers did not consider PM, a PM; everybody considered themselves the PM."

"There was policy paralysis. Perhaps respect for India was at its lowest, corruption of Rs 12 lakh crore. There were questions on internal security. It seemed our democratic system would collapse at any time. At that time BJP decided to field then Gujarat CM as its PM candidate.", he further added. 

Inputs: ANI

Image: ANI