Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday lashed out at the Congress, accusing it of destroying the Public Sector Undertaking (PSU) companies.
“I was born in independent India and my dreams are independent…Congress said we sold PSUs and destroyed them. I want to ask them who destroyed BSNL and MTNL? Recall the state of HAL under Congress,” the prime minister said in his ‘Motion of Thanks’ reply in the Rajya Sabha.
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Continuing his attack, the prime minister said,”They destroyed HAL and Air India. Congress party and UPA cannot run away from their failure. Today, the BSNL that you destroyed in it is moving towards Made in India 4G and 5G. HAL is showing record revenue generation and it has become Asia’s largest helicopter manufacturing factory. We have turned around the story,” Modi added.
Last month, Union communications minister Ashwini Vaishnaw had said in the Lok Sabha that state-owned BSNL will emerge as a new and capable organisation as the Modi-government is standing like a rock behind the public sector entity.
“Now, BSNL is making operating profit… and about after a year, BSNL will become a strong and capable entity… The Modi government is standing like a rock behind MTNL and BSNL,” the minister was quoted by PTI as saying.
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“Opposition spread rumours about LIC, but today its shares are trading at record high price,” Modi said. The PM’s remark comes days after the insurer’s shares jumped nearly 6 per cent to hit the ₹1,000 mark for the first time ever, taking its market valuation to above ₹6 lakh crore.
The stock climbed 5.90 per cent to settle at ₹1,000.35 on the BSE. During the day, it had zoomed 8.81 per cent to hit a 52-week high of ₹1,027.95.