Mohan Yadav working with more energy than Shivraj, says Shah

Bhopal: Union home minister Amit Shah on Thursday praised MP chief minister Mohan Yadav, saying that he works with more energy than former chief minister, now Union minister for agriculture, Shivraj Singh Chouhan. Praising MP CM's flagship regional industrial conclaves, Shah said the "concept will soon be adopted by other states so that balanced development and economic growth can be achieved." Shah was addressing the Abhyudaya Madhya Pradesh Growth Summit at Gwalior where he inaugurated and laid the foundation stone for Rs 2 lakh crore worth investments. "I want to congratulate Mohan Yadav. The concept of structured industrial conclaves was introduced by PM Narendra Modi in Gujarat through Vibrant Gujarat. Now, Mohan Yadav has made a new start. For a balanced development of the state, he has started regional investment conclaves. This idea will soon spread to other states," Shah said. The home minister argued that the investments might not appear large but their impact locally is huge. "We are laying the foundation stone for Rs 2 lakh crore worth of investment. But this investment means a lot for this particular region and the people of this area. The state cannot progress if there's no balanced development," he said. Shah claimed that it was the BJP that brought Madhya Pradesh on the path of development. "MP was once considered one of the BIMARU states. It was Shivraj Singh Chouhan who removed the BIMARU tag from Madhya Pradesh. He was the BJP chief minister for a long time in MP. Now, Mohan Yadav is working with more energy than Chouhan. This means that Madhya Pradesh will soon become a developed state," he said. Being the 101st birth anniversary of former PM Atal Bihari Vajpayee, Shah – while paying homage – said, "The entire country is observing Atalji's birth anniversary. I am fortunate that I am standing on the same soil where he spent the initial part of his life. Not only did Atalji help in saving the cultural heritage of this country, he spent his entire life awakening the voice of the nation. He took forward the journey from swaraj to susashan (good governance). In those days, when English was held in high regard, Atalji addressed the UN in Hindi and won the hearts of the people." Saying that Madhya Pradesh is among states with a predominant tribal population, Shah added, "Before the Vajpayee govt at the Centre, there was no separate department for tribal affairs. It was under the leadership of Atalji that the Union govt constituted a new tribal affairs department, and a new journey of tribal welfare started from there." "Before Atalji became Prime Minister, infrastructure development was never considered a factor to win elections. It was the Congress' belief that work on the ground does not yield votes. But Atal Bihari Vajpayee disposed this theory, and worked on the Golden Quadrilateral, thus taking the country forward through infrastructure development," Shah said. He said it was Vajpayee who gave the message to the world that atomic energy could be used for peaceful purposes. He went against the world and established India as a nuclear power, Shah said. "When Kargil intrusion took place, the world put pressure on India to hold dialogue with Pakistan. But Atalji held firmly that we tried to establish peace but were betrayed. He said there would be no dialogue with Pakistan till every Pakistani intruder was not pushed out of India. And Kargil victory in a way was the hallmark of the decisive leadership of Atal Bihari Vajpayee's tenure," Shah said.