Is Narendra Modi govt. right in claiming 90% Indians have toilet facility today? Nation@9

4 years ago when the BJP govt came to power PM Modi launched the much-touted Swachch Bharat Mission a mass movement that was meant to usher in a cleanliness revolution across the country. Undoubtedly. PM Modi’s pet project and one of his govt’s flagship programmes. The Swachch Bharat Mission was hailed by everyone. The PM speaking about issues such as the need to spread awareness across India about hygiene and sanitation. The importance of building toilets and making the country open defecation free during his very first. Independence Day speech from the ramparts of the Red Fort was seen as an unprecedented move by an Indian Prime Minister and as a highly laudable one. Today 4 years later the PM launched yet another mass movement called the 'Swachhata Hi Seva Movement’ once again urging people across the country to actively participate in the cleanliness mission. This 15 day campaign will mark Mahatma Gandhi's 150th birth anniversary on October 2 Joined by superstar Amitabh Bachchan and industry doyen Ratan Tata among others in an interaction streamed live on the Narendra Modi app. The PM urged all Indians to take the Clean India pledge. He has also written 2,000 personalised letters to people from all walks of life ranging from Bollywood stars to industrialists, sportspersons to journalists, retired judges to chief ministers inviting them to join the movement. After the launch of the campaign PM Modi picked up a broom and a shovel to clean a street in the Paharganj area of Old Delhi. Predictably the opposition tore into the PM and the govt calling the campaign a photo op and a massive PR exercise that was going to achieve little else on the ground Terming it a diversionary tactic by the govt the Congress claimed the govt was trying desperately to deflect attention from issues such as fuel price rise and lack of jobs while getting its priorities all wrong. The question we’re asking on the show tonight is just how much headway have we truly made in making India a clean and cleanliness conscious country? Is the govt right in claiming that more than 90% Indians have access to toilets and 19 states and union territories have been declared open-defecation free? How much do we as the citizens of this country need to do? And is the opposition being churlish in calling the campaign a PR exercise?