With the Aam Aadmi Party attaining national status, the party’s National Council met for its 11th meeting here on Sunday, to discuss its growth in the last decade and its plan going forward nationally.
The meeting concluded with the National Council noting the party’s achievements over the last decade and passing resolutions against rising inflation and unemployment and Chinese aggression.
Preparing the pitch for 2024 elections, national convenor and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal said: “I have a vision for the whole country… AAP is only the medium that will help achieve the vision. I envision an India that is a global education hub, where no one sleeps hungry, where underprivileged get top-class education-healthcare and become rich. In our vision for India, there is no scope for caste-religion divides, if the nation can’t unite for once and for all, it won’t be able to progress.”
He said that this has been a successful year for us for several reasons and “I would like to congratulate you all for your hard work and all your efforts”.
“In the last one year, we went on to win the state elections in Punjab and form the government over there. We fought the state elections in Goa and have two MLAs in the state. We also fought in the recently-concluded state elections in Gujarat and were successful there as well, so I would like to thank the people of Gujarat for trusting us and giving us such support in our first election in the state, ” Kejriwal said.
Punjab CM Bhagwant Mann noted the party’s success saying: “Delhi gave us our first government, Punjab gave us our first MPs in the Lok Sabha, Goa opened an account in the west and people from Gujarat made Aam Aadmi Party a national party.”
Addressing party members, Kejriwal said: “In a generic sense, there are just three main political parties in the national sphere. There are other political parties as well in the legal sense, but across the country, there is only the BJP, the Congress, and the AAP. And, the AAP stands out among these three with the kind of work that it does. Since we are all meeting today after such a long time, I think it is worth revisiting those aspects that form our ideological base. AAP stands firm on three basic principles in Indian politics – ‘kattar deshbhakti, ‘kattar imandaari, and (being) corruption free.”
He also said that one issue that is bothering the people of this country is the way China has constantly been attacking us and trying to take over the land that belongs to India.
“Over the years, slowly they have tried to take our territory and attack our soldiers at the borders. Meanwhile, our soldiers have displayed bravery and thwarted all the attempts of China. We have even lost some of our soldiers at the borders in these battle, ” he said.
“In 2020-21, we bought goods worth $65 billion from China – this translates to about Rs 5.25 lakh crore worth of goods. The following year, they continued to attack us and bother our soldiers, but we increased our trade to buy goods worth $95 billion or Rs 7.5 lakh crore from them. What is happening over here? We should have been punishing them or telling them that either you behave yourself or we will stop buying goods from you, but the Centre only seems to reward them more when they are attacking our soldiers at the borders.”
“I would also like to urge the BJP-led government to show some courage and stand with our soldiers, ” he said, adding that the government should not be under any compulsion to buy goods from China.
“This is the 21st Century, and no country can just take over the territory of another country in this day and age. In the modern world, it is all about trade and economics. The day we show some courage and stop this $95 billion import from China, it will come to the terms that India has laid down for it, ” he added.
