Mumbai: For its development, India needs a movement akin to the freedom movement, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on Saturday.
“Similar to the freedom movement, we need a movement for development, where the collective aspirations propel the country’s growth,” Modi said, addressing the India Today Conclave here via video link.
“We all should get involved in our dream of a new India, whose mantra will be ‘opportunity for all’ and an India of self-respect.
“For several decades, we had embarked in wrong directions with wrong policies,” Modi said.
“The decisions then were ‘election-driven’ or based on set notions of the officials, but this has changed now,” he said.
His government is not looking (at issues facing the country) with “tunnel vision” but with “total vision,” said the Prime Minister.
Referring to India Today Editor-in-Chief Aroon Purie remark describing him as the “disruptor-in-chief,” the PM said, “If there is a disruptor-in-chief, it is not Modi but the people of India who are entitled to this moniker”
“The new India is not about `upkaar’ (favour) but about `avsar’ (opportunity). This is about opportunities for all,” said Prime Minister Modi.
“The people are coming together in the country today to finish bad things within (it). This will strengthen the foundation of the new India,” the PM said.
Seeking to allay apprehensions over some policies of his government, Modi said, “This is not an ideology to destroy systems. This is about `kaya-kalp’ (transformation).
“We have changed the work culture,” Modi said adding the emphasis now is on re-engineering the processes to improve efficiency.
“We have focused on time-bound implementation and integrated thinking. Our processes are citizen-friendly,” he added.
“The way in which the GST was achieved is as important as the GST itself. The states have taken ownership of this,” he said.
“We believe in cooperative federalism. The GST process showed what the deliberative democracy is all about,” he said.
The PM said India’s economy is being transformed and the manufacturing sector is getting a boost.
The technology has undergone a drastic transformation in the last 20 years, Modi said adding the aspirations of the youths have to be kept in mind in this era.
On merits of the democracy, the Prime Minister said, “Bigger than the strength of the government is the people’s power.”
Dwelling on ‘the fast pace of development work’ after his government came to power, Modi said, “Our government made efforts to provide electricity to 12,000 villages which were without power for so many years even after the Independence.”