lChief Minister Yogi Adityanath, on Saturday, said that the new era belonged to India and the country was set to become ‘Vishwa Guru’ under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Speaking at the Inter-State Aryaveer and Veerangana conference at Moradabad, Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath said that the new National Education Policy, with its emphasis on adopting Indian languages for teaching all curricula, including medical and engineering courses, would establish India as the ‘Vishwa Guru’.

Yogi said that in the last eight years, Prime Minister Modi had succeeded in earning global respect for India’s cultural and spiritual heritage. He pointed out that as the country celebrates Amrit Mahotsava of India’s independence, “we are seeing a new India emerging under PM Modi’s leadership, realising the dream of Ek Bharat, Shreshth Bharat”.

“Article 370 has been abrogated in Kashmir, Ayodhya temple is being built, Kashi Vishwanath and Kedarnath temples have been renovated and AYUSH ministry has been set up to promote traditional medicine systems. The world is celebrating Yoga Day. India’s traditional medicine systems such as Ayurveda and Unani are getting global recognition. Swami Ramdev’s ayurveda products are giving tough competition to international products,” he said.     

Lauding the role of Arya Samaj in India’s independence from British rule, Yogi said that apart from swadeshi, the ‘shuddhi’ movement taken forward by Swami Shraddhanand led to the rise of many leaders, whose participation in the freedom struggle along with a large number of Aryaveers, forced Britishers to leave the country.

Yogi said that Swami Shraddhanand was brutally killed by some heretics who were upset over the social reforms taking place in India, but the movement did not stop as Narayan Swami took it forward by forming the Aryaveer forum.

The chief minister said: “If today we have been able to get two lakh couples married under the Mukhyamantri Marriage Scheme, it is because of the ‘Shuddhi’ movement, which led to a consistent fight against child marriages and for widow remarriages.”

Emphasising the need for people to stand against all social evils and bad practices, the chief minister appealed to the Aryaveers to increase awareness of people about the welfare schemes of the government.

He added: “We must stand against people who try to prevent remarriage of a widow. We must not let injustices of any kind happen. Any such incident happening in any part of the state must be brought to our notice.”

Yogi said that as India was the youngest country in the world, Uttar Pradesh was the youngest state in the country. He said that as Prime Minister Modi was encouraging natural farming across the country, Uttar Pradesh had started organic farming on 1.10 lakh hectares and would start it on another one lakh hectares within a year.

He added that the country could achieve self-reliance if the people were cultured, emotionally attached to the country and had respect for India’s rich heritage.