Page 218 - SocialHarmony

222 Social Harmony

to them. I visited Dahod recently. The Sakhi Mandal there
manages a fund of one crore rupees. In four years from this
golden jubilee year, this amount is estimated to rise to 1000 crore
from 400 crore rupees. It is our goal to get all people of Gujarat
free from debts. This welfare fair is the festival of eradication of
interest-hungry people.

Normally, I am quite a useless person so far as politics is
concerned. In fact, had I been a person eligible for politics, these
poor welfare fairs would not have been organised. When
elections are round the corner, when you need votes from the
people, when you need to misguide people, and when an
environment has to be created to make appear something that
would beget votes, such schemes should be run; but now, when
it is not the time of elections, when we need nothing from the
people in return, and when the government holds this type of
programmes in order to display its commitment to fight against
poverty, it shows its true intentions, else we too must aim at
elections. If you hold such programmes at the time of elections,
it would be better, else people would forget all about these. The
poor are used the most to fill the ballot-boxes. The ballot-boxes
have removed many leaders. There are numerous people who
fill their pockets in the name of the poor, but what have the
poor people got? The ballot-boxes of the leaders have been filled
to the brim, but the poor have got nothing but death and
destruction. But this welfare fair of mine is a tool to free you
from all this. Narendra Modi is the longest serving Chief
Minister in Gujarat, a person who got an opportunity to serve
you in the capacity of the Chief Minister for 3,000 days, you
must have read such things. When an individual gets to serve
people for 3,000 days, it is time for celebration, to beat drums,
to blow into pipes, to distribute sweets, to welcome with
garlands, to distribute sweets. Just think over and tell if all such
things should happen or not. But we have not done all this, nor
have we allowed it to happen. I said that the period of 3,000
days that I got to serve people, how did I get it? Due to whom I
got it? I got this opportunity to serve people for 3,000 days with
their blessings. Had the people not blessed us for this, I would