The Bharatiya Janata Party has been in power in India for more than a decade now, but the party's chief Amit Shah says the country has only just begun to reach its full potential, the Times of India reports.

The Bharatiya Janata Party has been in power in India for more than a decade now, but the party's chief Amit Shah says the country has only just begun to reach its full potential, the Times of India reports. In a speech in the Lok Sabha on Monday, Shah slammed the previous Congress-led government for not doing more to fight Maoists and said that "out of the 75 years since independence, power remained in your hands for 60 years," referring to the country's independence from Britain in 1947. He said the country had been left behind in development as "the shadow of red terror loomed," the Hindustan Times reports. "This is the Modi government; whoever takes up arms will be held accountable," he said, referring to the government's deadline to wipe out Maoists by the end of March. The speech was the first time that the BJP has used the term "red terror" to refer to the Maoists, who have killed more than 1,000 people in the last year alone, the Times notes. The BJP also used the term to describe the Maoists in a speech last month in which it accused the Congress party of being "asleep at the helm" of the government's anti- Maoist efforts, the Times reports. The party's leader in the state of Chhattisgarh, where the speech was made, said that the government has made major progress in wiping out Maoists, and that the region is now on the path of development.