Modi Targets Opposition in SRCC Centenary Celebrations
Addressing the centenary celebrations of the Shri Ram College of Commerce (SRCC) here on Sunday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi targeted the Opposition and drew a comparison between the present day and the situation the country found itself in back in 2013, when he had made a speech at the institute. That 2013 speech was one of Modi’s first big addresses to the youth outside Gujarat. He was the Gujarat CM and the BJP’s prospective prime ministerial candidate at the time. Modi asked the youth to go to the internet to see what the condition was in 2013. “A gang these days will cut this into small pieces”, he said, adding that he was focusing on what the media reported in those days. The killing of Indian soldiers at the LoC, the downgrading of the GDP numbers by the World Bank, and a helicopter scam were in the news at that time. “These things tell us about the situation of the country at that time. Growth was down on the ground and inflation was sky high. The world talked about policy paralysis in India and counted it among the ‘fragile five’ economies, but now views it as the fastest-growing major economy,” the PM said. “The 7.8% growth has enthused the country. This comes at a time when a war is on in West Asia. This shows India’s capability. But those known for pushing India into the fragile five cannot digest these figures,” Modi said, referring to the recent controversy over the GDP numbers released by the government. Modi recalled that in his 2013 speech at the college, people expected he would attack the then Congress-led Central government at the time, but added that despite being in the Opposition and being the government’s critic, he did not use this stage to attack it. Modi said he offered a vision and spoke with conviction here. Modi said that on that day, he had said a “half-filled glass of water can be viewed in three ways: some see it as half full, some as half empty, and some full to the brim with water and air”. “India is growing and providing new avenues for employment,” Modi said, adding that for the “naysayers, the glass had been half empty since 2013”, and would stay so. “I had talked about pro-people good governance here in 2013. Those in power earlier woke up only during crises. I have changed this approach and proved it since 2014,” he said. At the outset, the PM recalled that SRCC’s journey began in Delhi’s Daryaganj area and that small place had now become a “huge “. “For over 100 years, Shri Ram College of Commerce has given generations of students the opportunity to learn, grow, and make a difference,” Modi said. “In your language, the alumni from here are OG. They have spread the name of SRCC across the world,” he said, using the term associated with Gen Z. The PM’s visit to SRCC comes amid the BJP’s ongoing outreach to the young generation. Thirteen years earlier, the premier institution was the venue of He addressed a packed auditorium, with an enthralled audience of students, though there were stray protests outside the college gate. In the speech back then, Modi said the youth should not be seen as new-age voters alone but as “new-age power” and that Gujarat under him had given one-third focus to each of the agriculture, industry and services sectors so that a crisis in any one in a year would not deeply impact the state. Modi told the audience early in his speech, after sipping half a glass of water in front of him, that the optimists would think that the glass is half full and the pessimists that it was half empty. He added that he belonged to a third kind: he saw it as full to the brim, half with water and half with air. Modi said he wasn’t a teacher but was addressing a college, adding that the country should export teachers to the world who could capture the minds of a generation in other countries. The PM’s 2013 speech largely steered clear of political controversies at a time when the serving UPA government was facing stiff anti-incumbency, and spoke a language of hope for the future of the country. He suggested that India’s time had arrived and it needed to make use of the opportunity. Modi said that while it was said that the world was looking at India as it was a big market to “dump” its goods in, the country should excel as a producer so that it could decide where in the world to sell its produce.
-1788660353881_v.webp&w=3840&q=75)
