India needs a strong govt, not a weak coaliton: Sushma Swaraj

New Delhi: Taking a swipe at the ‘mahagathbandhan’ (grand alliance), External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj on Saturday said that India needed a strong government and not a weak coalition.

“India needs a strong government and not a weak coalition government. Please tell the same to your relatives and friends who reside in India,” Swaraj said while interacting with Indians residing across the globe.

Swaraj said that the government merged Persons of Indian Origin (PIO) and Overseas Citizenship of India (OIC) card and now the NRIs can now obtain just an OCI card.

Highlighting the works done by the BJP in the last five years, the External Affairs Minister said, “Before 2014, only 59 villages were connected with optical fibre. Today, 1.16 lakh villages have been connected with optical fibre. Under Jan Dhan Yojana, 340 million new bank accounts have been opened. It is the biggest financial inclusion program of the world.”

“India stood at 142 rank in Ease of Doing Business which improved to 77th rank under the Narendra Modi government. Our economy was in ‘fragile five’ and today it is the sixth largest economy of the world. Prime Minister Modi started Clean India programme. The sanitation coverage was only 40 per cent. today it has grown to 98 per cent. It happened because new toilets have been built,” she added.

Swaraj said that while one election can be contested on the basis of promises, but the other election must be contested on the basis of performance.

Asserting that the BJP government took a tough stand on terror, Swaraj said, “In 2008, 166 people were killed in Mumbai attacks. On the contrary, when Uri attack took place, we carried out surgical strike and when Pulwama attack happened, we did air strike. We have a zero tolerance policy towards terrorism.”

[source_without_link]ANI[/source_without_link]