PM Modi is God's gift to India, says Shivraj Singh Chouhan

Vrindavan: Prime Minister Narendra Modi is God's gift to India, Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan said on Sunday.

He also attacked the Congress, saying the party of Mahatma Gandhi should be "embarrassed" at its vice president Rahul Gandhi's stand on the JNU row.

In his address to a convention of Bhartiya Janata Yuva Morcha, BJP's youth wing, where leader after leader showered encomiums on Modi and attacked Congress, Chouhan said the Prime Minister had become the "most popular leader in the world" and was working to make India a strong and prosperous country.

"He is a man of ideas and has the strong will to execute them. Wherever in the world he goes, people chant Modi! Modi! He is the God's divine gift to India. He will make India 'vishwa guru' by 2022," he said amid cheers from the audience.

Hitting out at the opposition party over the JNU row, he said, "Congress, the party of Mahatma Gandhi, should be embarrassed... Rahul Gandhi should be ashamed."

It was, however, his state's development under him that was the focus of Chouhan's speech as he reeled out a number of welfare schemes he had launched for weaker sections and the poor.

Attacking Congress, Chouhan said it had no right to talk about the poor as it "sucked their blood" when in power and claimed BJP was the most pro-poor party.

Speaking about the his government's successes, the third-term Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh said, the state has been clocking over 10 per cent growth for the last eight years and 20 per cent of agricultural growth for over four years.

He said the money transfer scheme for newly-born baby girls had resulted in improved sex ratio. "I had decided that daughters should become a boon not curse for their families."

Against the 50 per cent reservation for women, they were elected to 56 per cent of seats in local bodies, he said. Maintaining that he believed in social justice through distributing wealth among those with "empty hands", he said if there is one party for the poor, it is BJP.

Union ministers Sanjeev Balyan and Dharmendra Pradhan also spoke earlier in the day.

Balyan, among the younger names in the government and party's Jat face in Uttar Pradesh, said youth should be given more responsibilities in the UP Assembly poll scheduled for early next year as only they can take on the current state government of "thieves".