PM Modi explained how India faced the petrol-diesel and fertilizer crisis amidst global wars. He highlighted the government's diplomacy, visionary policies, and the strategy of keeping national interest paramount.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi highlighted India's strong position and the government's visionary policies during global crises. He explained how the country successfully navigated the petrol-diesel and fertilizer crisis arising from wars, keeping the national interest paramount.
PM Modi stated that the war had created a massive crisis for diesel and petrol.
He reminded that our country does not have large oil wells.
When this crisis escalated, the price of crude oil had surged from $70 per barrel to $120 per barrel.
Import routes were also closed, making the situation even more severe.
In many countries around the world, diesel and petrol prices increased by 40 to 50 percent.
In several nations, the situation deteriorated to the point where diesel and petrol were being distributed on a quota basis.
PM Modi emphasized that despite these global challenges, such a situation never arose in India for even a single day.
He said, "Many rumors were spread, people were scared, incited, and political games were played."
But those with malicious intentions did not succeed.
Even in remote areas, apart from minor hitches, there were no major supply challenges.
The government took significant steps to reduce the burden on the public.
Between April and June alone, companies had to bear a loss of over ₹75,000 crore on diesel and petrol.
This loss was so substantial that a new refinery could have been built with it.
The responsibility of covering this loss was borne by the government treasury.
The government also reduced the excise duty by ₹1 per liter so that the public would not be overly burdened.
The Prime Minister said that during this time of war, India's friendship with other countries proved very useful.
He explained that before this crisis began, India used to import fuel from only 25-26 countries.
But during the crisis, India's diplomacy shone.
Our good relations with other countries were very helpful in this time of crisis.
During the war, India changed its strategy and began importing fuel from more than 40 countries.
India sent a clear message to the world that for us, the national interest and the interest of our citizens are paramount.
PM Modi said, "Nagrik Devbhav (The citizen is divine), this is our mantra."
He stated that the country did not emerge from such an unprecedented challenge just like that; behind it lies the success of our visionary policies that have been in place for a decade.
Today we are inaugurating the Rajasthan Refinery. We had signed an MoU for it in 2017.
He targeted the Congress government, saying that from 2018 to 2023, due to the non-cooperation of the Congress government in Rajasthan, the work here had almost come to a standstill.
But as soon as the double-engine government came, its work progressed rapidly, and today we are also inaugurating it.
Emphasizing his working style, PM Modi said, "We inaugurate what we lay the foundation stone for."
Similarly, India has continuously increased its refinery capacity.
He made a comparison, stating that not a single new refinery has been built in America in the last 50 years.
Europe's refinery capacity has been continuously decreasing.
On the other hand, India has now become the world's fourth-largest country in terms of refinery capacity.
Regarding future plans, he said, "We are not going to stop here. This capacity is going to increase even more in the coming years."
It is due to these efforts that India has emerged victorious from the biggest energy crisis of the century.
PM Modi also mentioned the challenges faced by farmers.
He said that war and unrest in the world also create challenges for our farmers.
The West Asia crisis and the Ukraine war created a major fertilizer crisis in the world.
A serious problem arose for fertilizers.
After the Ukraine war, there came a time when the price of a bag of urea went above ₹3000.
But we provided relief to our farmers. The bag that cost ₹3000 in the world market, we continued to provide to the farmers of my country for just ₹300.
For this, lakhs of crores of rupees had to be spent from the government treasury, and subsidies were given.
For the supply chain that was affected, India also found solutions.
The government explored alternative routes. We assigned special responsibilities to our embassies in many countries.
Initiatives were taken to purchase fertilizers from other countries.
Along with imports, we also increased domestic production and focused on it.
Not only this, we also promoted alternatives like natural farming and took strict action against hoarding and black marketing.
Friends, similarly, we also took care of our industries and MSMEs.
MSMEs were facing rising costs.
Therefore, we brought a new phase of the Emergency Credit Line Guarantee Scheme.
Under this scheme, banks provided an additional loan of up to 20% to MSMEs.
The government provided a 100% guarantee for all these loans to MSMEs, and this is Modi's guarantee.
Small-scale and cottage industries benefited greatly from this.
The result of many such decisions is that today our small and large industries feel secure.
Our government took continuous decisions because we had faith in India's potential.
We had 100% faith in the capabilities and wisdom of our countrymen.
Today, I express my gratitude to 140 crore countrymen.
I thank the countrymen with a bow, for the way they stood firmly with the country in this difficult time.
The way the countrymen confronted those spreading rumors, fear, and confusion, and foiled conspiracies to spread instability in the country.
The country has been able to move forward on the basis of that trust.
Those who wanted to see India fail, and were even making predictions for it, must be in the depths of despair today.
In the end, he said that along with the inauguration and foundation stone laying of development projects today, I also had the good fortune to plant a Khejri sapling here under the 'A Tree in Mother's Name' initiative.
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Pradeep Budawat
