Deputy Chief Minister Keshav Prasad Maurya said that the poor and the downtrodden were getting their share in the Bharatiya Janata Party government because it was implementing the pro-people policies of the Narendra Modi government in letter and spirit.

"India has progressed in true sense in the last four-and-a-half years. The country had suffered because of the partisan policies of the previous government. Their policies were so lopsided that the chasm between the poor and the rich increased. It was BJP which tried to bridge that chasm," Maurya said while speaking at Loktantra Senani Aabhaar Sammelan held here on Sunday.

The loktantra senanis are leaders who were jailed during the Emergency.

Maurya said the Congress had ruled the country for the maximum time after Independence but it had not shown respect for leaders other than the Gandhi family.

"Everyone knows what happened to Sardar Patel and Subhas Chandra Bose. Even leaders like Atal Bihari Vajpayee, Sharad Pawar and Raj Narain were looked down upon by the Congress government. It is only Narendra Modi who broke the barriers of political lines and gave respect which was due to the leaders," the Deputy Chief Minister said.

"The world now knows about Sardar Patel and the Statue of Unity. This is the true respect the BJP government has given to the leaders," he added.

Maurya said, in Uttar Pradesh, Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath was giving respect to the leaders of various political parties.

He said the Congress stooped low when it arrested a leader like Jayprakash Narayan during Emergency. "Then people like you revolted against the then government and courted arrest. It is history that all jails across the country were full but there was no ebb in your enthusiasm," he said.

"Leaders have taken lessons from your sacrifice and have not stepped into the shoes of dictator," he added.

BJP MLC Yashwant Singh also addressed the loktantra senanis.