Modi blames Cong for ‘despondency’
Addressing a public meeting at Pune’s Fergusson College on Sunday, Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi once again targeted the Congress over the issue of corruption. He said that the Commonwealth Games scam has ruined the country’s honour. Mr Modi also stressed on the need to use more technology in agriculture to increase production.
Mr Modi, who is also the BJP’s campaign chief for 2014 Lok Sabha elections, claimed that the Congress was responsible for the sense of “despondency” and “hopelessness” that had enveloped the country.
The BJP leader was in Pune on Sunday and was addressing students and staff of the Fergusson College where had gone to inaugurate an amphitheatre.
Mr Modi’s speech was also sprinkled with Marathi in a bid to interact better with his audience. Blaming the Congress without actually naming it for most of the ills plaguing the country, he said, “Today, there is despondency and a sense of hopelessness…it is important that we rise from this despondency. Everything is not lost and even today, we can set things right.”
Further taking on the Congress in Suresh Kalmadi’s home turf Pune, Mr Modi said, “A small country like South Korea, which got independence at around the same time as India, successfully organised the Olympics in their country. We, a nation of 120 crore people, were not able to properly organise the Commonwealth Games (CWC). While Korea brought honour to itself through the Olympics, our nation lost its honour in the eyes of the world.”
Mr Modi also questioned the efficacy of the much-touted Food Security Bill introduced by the UPA government.
“They have brought before the nation a Food Security Bill and are claiming success as if the meals have already been served on plates,” he said.
Without naming the Congress, but making it amply clear who he was referring to, the BJP campaign chief said that the advantages and the resources India that had, have been frittered away by governments since Independence and that under the current dispensation, India’s stock is falling among nations in all fields.
“If a country needs to focus on nation-building, then it has to focus on education and human resources development. China began changing their focus in 1978 — in the year 2000 out of the top 500 universities, two belonged to India and none to China, while 10 years later, China had 32 universities while India had just one,” said Mr Modi.
Referring to growing cyber crime, Mr Modi said his government has set up the world’s first Forensic Science University in Gujarat. “Now Congress will say what is new? Mind you, I am not talking about courses in forensic science being taught in colleges and universities, I am talking about a Forensic Science University, which is a first-of-its-kind in the world,” he said.
The Gujarat CM went on and said that the country could become a great nation if it focused on education and said that there was no systematic plan to link education with skill and jobs. He lamented that education was now a “money-making mission” and that he would like the old India when “education was a man making mission”.
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