Union Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw during a cabinet briefing in New Delhi on Wednesday. Express photo by Anil SharmaThe BJP on Wednesday highlighted the “transformation in the lives of an average Indian citizen” as well as the strides in both the country’s economy and its standing in the global order in the last 11 years of the Narendra Modi-led NDA government at the Centre.Union Minister Ashwani Vaishnaw gave a presentation on the 11 years of “seva (service)”, “sushashan (good governance)” and “gareeb kalyan (welfare of the poor)” under PM Modi’s leadership. He said “humongous tasks” had been fulfilled under the Prime Minister’s leadership to put the country on the path of “long-term growth”.Union Home Minister Amit Shah, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, BJP national president Jagat Prakash Nadda, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, Road Transport and Highways Minister Nitin Gadkari besides national spokespersons and senior party leaders attended the event organised at Bharat Mandapam in the presence of senior editors and journalists from the print media.The presentation focussed on statistics related to 12 “big picture” achievements in each sector ranging from the welfare of the poor and the marginalised to the welfare of farmers and women’s empowerment, ease of living for the middle class, infrastructure development, affordable healthcare and enhancement of India’s per capita income from a little over `86,000 to `2 lakh, among others.In addition to this, the Union Minister also sought to underscore the changes in the very “vision” of governance undertaken by PM Modi since taking over in 2014 with the welfare of both the nation and its citizens at their core.“Earlier, there was competition among districts when it came to being declared ‘backward’, but PM Modi’s vision is different; these became not backward but aspirational districts… Under his government, the economy of the very country which enslaved us for 150 years has been surpassed… ‘Defence agents’, once common in Delhi’s corridors, are now a thing of the past,” Vaishnaw said.“Instead of breaking the back of Naxalism, earlier governments used to only acknowledge its presence across what was called the ‘Red Corridor’… Article 370 was treated as a given, something that nothing could be done about, but not any more… No other Prime Minister before him made an announcement as crucial to the welfare of our girl children as the provision of sanitary pads at `1, (a promise) made from the Red Fort,” he said.Story continues below this adVaishnaw also underlined India’s stature as a global leader when it came to the indigenous Unified Payments Interface (UPI), through which digital transactions of an estimated `214 lakh crore had been done till January during the 2024-25.Jatin Anand is an Assistant Editor with The Indian Express. Over the last 15 years, he has covered bureaucracy & politics, crime, traffic & intelligence, the Election Commission of India & Urban Development among other beats. He is an English (Literature) graduate from Zakir Husain Delhi College, DU & specialised in Print at the Asian College of Journalism (ACJ), Chennai. He tweets @jatinpaul ... Read MoreStay updated with the latest - Click here to follow us on Instagram© The Indian Express Pvt LtdTags:Ashwani Vaishnaw