'NDA govt will ensure safety of all NRIs': PM Modi amid ongoing West Asia crisis

'Whenever one of our countrymen is in trouble, the NDA government has used all its strength to ensure their safety. We never abandon our citizens during crisis situation', Modi said.

Thiruvananthapuram: As tension in West Asia continues, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has said that the NDA government at the centre will ensure the protection and safety of all NRIs.

Addressing a NDA convention at Kochi in Kerala on Wednesday, Modi recollected the evacuations carried out by his government earlier from various crisis hit countries as well as that of father Tom Uzhunnalil, who was abducted in Yemen, and Father Alexis Premkumar, who was abducted in Afghanistan.

"It is natural for all of you to be concerned about what's happening in the Gulf and West Asia. Whenever one of our countrymen is in trouble, the NDA government has used all its strength to ensure their safety. We never abandon our citizens during crisis situation," he said.

A major chunk of NRIs in West Asian countries are Malayalis.

In his one day visit to Kerala ahead of the Assembly polls, Modi said that once the BJP comes to power in Kerala, the double engine government would ensure development at double speed in the state.

The PM also conducted a roadshow in Kochi that witnessed the participation of a large number of people. 

Modi accused the ruling CPI(M)-led Left Democratic Front and opposition Congress-led United Democratic Front of delaying the state's progress and indulging in corruption with their adjustment politics.

"Over the last seventy years Kerala had been witnessing alternate rule by the UDF and LDF. That adjustment politics led to corruption and stagnation of the state's development. Hence time has come for the people of Kerala to give a chance to the BJP-NDA to serve. It is Modi's guarantee to present a Viksit Keralam. BJP's double engine government will ensure Kerala's development at double speed," Modi said.

The Prime Minister also said that Kerala's tourism and talent potentials would be tapped to make the state into a hub of wellness tourism, wedding destination and MICE tourism as well as a technology hub with focus on sectors like AI.

Modi also took a jibe at the Congress by stating that the young leaders of the party were still unaware of the development the country made. "Young leaders of the Congress are not aware that the youths in the country are now making drones here," he said in an oblique reference to the protest by Youth Congress at the AI Impact summit in Delhi recently.

Modi, who was on a one-day visit, also launched various development projects to the tune of Rs. 10,800 crore and also attended the golden jubilee meeting of the Akhila Kerala Dheevara Sabha in Kochi.