Good News Pouring in From All Sides: PM Modi on GDP, UP Civic Poll Results

Ahmedabad/New Delhi: Buoyed by the latest GDP growth figures and the BJP's landslide victory in the Uttar Pradesh civic polls, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on Friday good news is pouring in from all sides, and despite the criticism from various quarters, India is moving ahead with confidence.

To reach out to party workers in the state ahead of the Assembly elections, he spoke to over 7,500 women BJP workers in Gujarat in a video conference through NaMo App.

"After we took the decisions of the note ban and GST (roll out) some people had started claiming that India is now finished. They said that India has entered a dark age.

"People claiming to be economists entered into a competition to give statements against these decisions," the prime minister said, according to a release by the state BJP.

"Amid that hue and cry, India has once again started moving forward with confidence. Yesterday, it was announced that our GDP has grown by 6.3 per cent. Just when we were relishing that moment, people of UP did wonders. We are getting good news at regular intervals now," he said.

Referring to the BJP's impressive showing in UP civic polls, Modi said these results are important in many ways.

"Yogi-ji (Yogi Adityanath) became the chief minister after the people of UP gave three-fourths majority to the BJP. That victory had come amid negative propaganda against our decision of demonetisation. This time, some people created a huge uproar against the GST, claiming that the BJP would never come to power due to this decision," the prime minister said.

"Be it our stand on triple talaq or our decision to implement the GST, the country's voters want progress and India's well-being. And, as we know, as soon as winter sets in in UP, Gujarat too feels that cold air after some time. That air has already reached here," he said, implying that his party would do similarly well in Gujarat elections.

He also mentioned several other "good news" such as improvement in the ease of doing business ranking by the World Bank and ratings by Moody's recently.