Bharatiya Janata Party National President Shri Amit Shah today addressed a meeting of intellectuals and prominent citizens at the NDMC Convention Centre here and deliberated on BJP’s ideology, principles and achievements of Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led Bharatiya Janata Party government at the Centre. Earlier, Shri Shah held a meeting with Delhi BJP Core Committee members, MPs, MLAs, State party Office-bearers, District Presidents and District General Secretaries. He also held a meeting Delhi Municipal Councillors and members of Delhi Cantonment and discussed various issues. At the meetings, he also reviewed the progress of Pandit Deendayal Upadhayay Birth Centenary programme and Karya Vistarak Yojna.Shri Shah said that time has come to have a comparative study of ideologies of various political parties, internal democracy in parties and performances of various governments. He said it is important for a democratic country that political parties observe internal democracy. It is however unfortunate that of about 1650 small and big political parties in the country , BJP is the only party which has observes full internal democracy. Citing an example, Shri Shah said everybody knows who will be next president of the Congress. But none can predict who will be next president of BJP because the BJP chooses its president not on the basis of caste or family. He said leaders in BJP rise on the basis of their commitment, hard work, intelligence and performance. BJP has internal democracy in which a booth-level karyakarta can become president of the party and son of a poor adorn the seat of prime minister.Referring to ideologies and principles of various political parties, the BJP President said there are many political parties in the country which follow the policies of family rule, casteism, appeasement and regionalism. On the other hand, BJP is the only political party which runs on the basis of ideology and principles. The party’s ideology is visible in all our schemes and policies, Shri Shah said.He said the Bharatiya Jana Sangh was founded to provide a new direction and alternative to the country. He said that after independence when the development policies for the nation were being chalked out by Jawaharlal Nehru government, Dr syama Prasad Mukherjee and other nationalists held the view that the policies adopted by the Nehru Government will keep the nation backward and they decided to put forward alternative policies before the nation which were based on indigenous needs, and out of western thoughts. He said the basic difference between Congress and Jana Sangh was that Congress wanted to build an India by leaving behind India’s heritage and culture, while Jana Sangh was in favour of reconstruction of the nation on the basis of its cultural heritage and ethos.Shri Shah said the third yardstick to measure the performance of a political party is what kind of governance it provides to the country. On this aspect also the BJP has left behind other political parties. He said the Congress has no principles as it was founded not on the basis of any principles or ideology but for achieving freedom of the country. This is why Mahatma Gandhi has spoken about dissolution of the Congress after attaining independence, he said and added how a party without any principle can bring about development of the country.The BJP President said that since independence there had been several governments in the past 70 years and people have seen four types of governments—Congress governments, Communists governments, Regional Parties’ governments and BJP governments. He urged that time has come to have a comparative study of the performances of four types of governance. They can see there was hardly any developmental activities in the country during the governments of Congress, Communist and Regional Parties governments. In all those states where BJP was in power, the party has established new standards of development. All BJP governments are people oriented, transparent and decisive.Shri Shah reminded the gathering of the situation in 2012 when there was Congress led UPA government in the country. The youth was not only angry but frustrated, women were insecure and there were violations on the borders of the country, the Army was disgraced, our prime minister often failed to put up India’s concerns while visiting foreign countries and therefore issues concerning India were never discussed at international for a, economy was in a shambles, economy was on a slide downward, and there were no policy decisions. In this scenario the people of the country entrusted their confidence in Shri Narendra Modi ji and handed over reigns to him. Shri Shah said that at the time of Shri Atal Bihari Vajpayee government, the rate of growth was pegged at 8% which has come down to 4.4% during UPA regime. The Modi government has again brought up the growth rate to 7%. He said India has left China far behind in economic growth and become the fastest emerging economy in the world. Today sensex has reached a record level and the country has a record foreign reserves now.Shri Shah said that even 70 years after independence, 60% of the population had no bank account. Under the Prime Minister Jan-Dhan Yojana , about 28.5 crore bank accounts of people have been opened in the last three years. After opening their accounts, the government directly transferred the subsidy amount to their accounts to check irregularities in reaching subsidies to the beneficiaries. He said similarly through the Prime Minister Ujjwala Yojana, five crore women will be provided LPG connections, of which 2 crore LPG connections have already been given. There had been 12 crore households which had no toilets. The BJP government has constructed 4.5 crore toilets in three years. Shri Shah said Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi has, by launching campaign against defecating in the open, provided respect and honour to women. He said that 7.64 crore people have been provided financial assistance through banks to generate self employment.Shri Shah said the BJP government under the leadership of Shri Narendra Modi has set new standards of success in every sphere. The whole world looks upon India with hope. The Modi government has implemented about 106 schemes for the welfare of the poor and development of the country.None of these schemes is aimed at benefitting only one section of the society. All schemes are all inclusive all round development of the country. India has emerged a new power in space technology after it launched 104 satellites simultaneously. The government implemented OROP (one rank, one pension) for ex-servicemen who have been demanding it for the past 40 years. He said that of the 18,000 non-electrified villages, 13,000 villages have already been electrified and by 2018, there will be no non-electrified village in the country. The BJP government has launched many schemes for betterment of farmers and Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi has set a target of doubling the income of farmers by 2022. This shows the commitment of the Prime Minister towards the welfare of farmers, he said.Shri Shah said Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi has promoted India’s heritage and culture in the world. As a result, 170 countries now observe June 21 as International Yoga Day. Shri Modi also demonstrated India’s commitment towards ‘ save climate’ by signing Paris Agreement .The BJP President said that many governments make one or two historic achievements. But the Modi government has taken 50 such decisions in just three years. Shri Modi has implemented one tax regime by bringing in GST across the country. The BJP is working towards bringing in probity in politics, promoting transparency and strengthening the country through all round all inclusive development. Besides several steps have been taken to check black money which was having negative impact on the country’s economy. Shri Shah referred to the decision of demonetization as a bold step to enforce transparency in economy. He said the Modi government also initiated limitation of donation to political parties to Rs 2,000 cash. Whether it is question of legislation on Benami property, or bill on Enemy property or Shell companies the Modi government has launched a drive against them. The Government has demonstrated its strong will power to curb their activities. He said black money coming to India enroute Cyprus, Singapore and Mauritius has been checked.The BJP President said that the BJP under Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s leadership wants to build such an India where every household has electricity, LPG connection, bank account for every person, potable water for all, toilets in each house, road connectivity to all villages, education for all, health for all and employment for all. He said that under Pandit Deendayal Upadhayay Birth Centenary year, the government has set a target to ensure that fruits of development reach the poor of the poorest. Shri Shah said that after the BJP government under Shri Narendra Modi came to power at the Centre, the party has won all most all the elections held so far in the country. This mandate of the people for BJP, is a compliment to the working of the Modi government and the party, he said.