Promising a much better life to farmers at a mega rally to mark one year of his government, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday assured them of 24-hour electricity within five years and a soil health card for each farmer within three years.

“Who is responsible for suicides by over three lakhs farmers? We should not do politics on that. Rather, we should find reasons why farmers are facing problems,” Modi said at the rally, the first of the 200 to be held.

The rally was held at the birth place of Pandit Deen Dayal Upadhayay, an ideologue of the Bhartiya Jana Sangh (BJP’s predecessor), in UP’s Mathura district. Modi said his government had taken measures to increase urea availability, adding that steps to enhance production by 20 lakh tonnes will also save ₹4 lakh crore in foreign exchange. Interestingly, despite his focus on farmers, Modi chose not to mention the controversial Land Bill.

Presenting his report card, Modi said while the UPA government got ₹3,000 crore worth FDI during the last year if its governance, his government managed to get over ₹25,000 crore in the first year itself.

Slogan switch?

The Prime Minister asked the people ‘Bure din gaye ki nahi (have the bad days gone?)’ instead of his electoral slogan ‘Acche din aa gaye’ (Good days are here).

In his hour-long speech, Modi asked the people several times whether they had got rid of ‘bad days’. “When I came to power, I said I will not be ‘Pradhan Mantri’ but ‘Pradhan Santri’ and will not let anyone eye the wealth of 125 crore people,” he said, claiming that he had managed to do so in one year.

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