Prime Minister Narendra Modi speaks during the launch of several development projects at a public meeting in Jind. | Photo credit: ANI
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday scrapped the country’s first hydrogen-powered train even as he took a dig at the Congress government at the Center until 2014, accusing them of neglecting the country’s railway sector as the middle class and the poor were never on their list of priorities.
Mr Modi also launched a scathing attack on the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government in Punjab, accusing it of betraying the people of the border state as the party has failed on all fronts and is now using publicity to hide its betrayal and failures.
The Prime Minister addressed various meetings in Haryana’s Jind, Punjab’s Jalandhar and Chandigarh. In Jind, after stopping the country’s first hydrogen-powered train between Jind and Sonipat, he said that if the Hormuz situation had happened before 2014, Indian Railways would have stopped. However, thanks to the transformation in Indian Railways over the last 12 years of the BJP regime, railway operations in the country are running smoothly, he added.
“…The war is going on in Western Asia, in the Hormuz area and along the sea route through Hormuz, India receives most of its gasoline, diesel, LPG and fertilizers. But in the last three to four months, this route has turned into a battlefield. If such a situation had happened before 2014, the activities of the Indian Railways would have come to a standstill. Because at that time, in 2014, in a large part of the country, only our trains were running on diesel,” Mr Modi said.
Electrification began in 1925.
“Electrification of Indian Railways began in 1925, almost a century ago. From 1925 to 2014, in about 90 years, only 30% of the railway network was electrified and 70% ran on diesel. But in the last 12 years, almost 99% of India’s railway network has been electrified,” he added.
In Jalandhar, Mr Modi said: “Indian Railways is the transporter of poor and middle class families. The Congress government is used to sitting idly by after false announcements of new trains. The railway development work that is being done today should have been done 30-40 years ago. But this work was simply not on the list of priorities of previous governments,” he said.
Attacking the AAP, Mr Modi said: “The law and order situation in Punjab has deteriorated. Doing business and trade has become difficult. People are being held to ransom. Even police stations are not safe.”
“AAR’s Arrogant Statements”
He alleged that drug peddlers are roaming freely and pushing the youth of Punjab into the swamp of drug addiction. “The people in power in Punjab used to very arrogantly claim that they will change the politics of the country. But today the country is witnessing their reality. Just two or three days ago, a court in Delhi found one of their leaders guilty. He has been charged with inciting riots,” he said.
“Extortion, illegal collection, unauthorized storage – all these have become the trademark of their policies. In Punjab, the person who was appointed as health minister had to be sacked due to bribery. Their MLAs are caught red-handed accepting bribes,” he said.
“The Central Government is making efforts to ensure that the people of Punjab get benefits from every Central scheme. But under the leadership of this corrupt party, there is an open game of loot here. In the last 12 years, millions of crores of rupees have been sent from the Center to Punjab, but the Punjab Government has not spent this money in the right places. The situation is that all development works in Punjab have come to a standstill,” Mr. said. Modi.
In Haryana, Mr Modi laid the foundation stone and dedicated various development projects worth around ₹14,700 crore to the nation. In Chandigarh, it did the same for projects worth over ₹4,700 crore and in Punjab, projects were valued at ₹5,470 crore.
Published – Jul 17, 2026 5:06 pm EST.