PM Modi: New India rectifying injustice by history writers

Modi said history is not just what was written by those who enslaved the country or those who wrote it with the “mindset of slavery”. History lies in the folklore of India, he added.

Modi cited the attempts made by his government to ensure proper respect is accorded to the makers of Indian history, right from Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose and Sardar Patel to B R Ambedkar and Maharaja Suheldev.

The Prime Minister claimed that neither Netaji nor his Azad Hind Fauj was accorded the importance that should have been given, and said the Centre was strengthening his identity from Red Fort to Andaman and Nicobar Islands. Sardar Patel and Ambedkar were similarly ignored in the past, Modi claimed.

Modi said Maharaja Suheldev — an 11th-Century ruler who killed Ghaznavid general Salar Masud — was among the icons not given their due respect. He said the contributions of Suheldev might have been ignored by history textbooks, but they had been kept alive in the folklore of the Awadh, Tarai and Purvanchal regions.

Providing examples of monuments related to “history, faith and spirituality” that his government has developed in the past few years, the Prime Minister said the main objective of building such monuments was to promote tourism.

In Uttar Pradesh, Modi said, Ramayana circuits, spiritual circuits, and Buddhist circuits were being developed in places such as Ayodhya, Chitrakoot, Mathura, Vrindavan, Govardhan, Kushinagar and Shravasti that are believed to be connected to Hindu deities such as Ram and Krishna, and the Buddha.

Speaking about the three farm laws that are being opposed by various farmers’ groups, Modi claimed that misinformation was being spread about the legislation.

Taking a dig at the Opposition, the Prime Minister said, “The entire country saw that those who brought laws to bring foreign companies into the Indian agriculture market are today scaring farmers in the name of local companies.” But their “lies and propaganda” were being exposed, he added.