The US administration may have denied a visa to Narendra Modi, but it did not deter the Gujarat Chief Minister from reaching out to thousands of NRIs in 18 US cities on the occasion of Gujarat Day celebrations on Monday.
Modi linked up through video conference to tear into the UPA Government’s foreign policy and promote the Gujarat growth story.
While Modi slammed the UPA over corruption and a “weak” and “directionless Government,” the thrust of his attack was the mishandling of the foreign policy.
Referring to China’s recent incursion in ladakh, Modi said: “I have a simple question for the Government in Delhi. China enters our land and pulls back, that’s one thing. But I wonder why are the Indian forces withdrawing from Indian territoryIJ This raises questions in the minds of the common man. Questions about China knocking at our doors.”
Attacking India’s policy towards Pakistan, Modi said: “Can you imagine that just days after our soldiers were beheaded on the border, the Prime Minister of that country was being fed chicken biryani hereIJ” he said in an obvious reference to the lunch hosted by External Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid in honour of former Pakistani Prime Minister Raja Pervez Ashraf, in Jaipur in March.
Asserting that he has given a new meaning to the word “development” during his 12-year rule in Gujarat, Modi also said the greatest challenge facing India is restoring the “trust” of the people.
“I know what damage it can cause when rulers of a country are weak. You should look at the incidents of the last one month,” he said.The BJP strongman claimed that the nation’s biggest challenge right now is lack of confidence and how to restore this confidence.
“People ask me what is the biggest challenge our country is facing at present. I strongly believe that the biggest challenge we are facing is absence of confidence. No one trusts anyone. The country has lost confidence in every institution that we have been relying on,” he said.
“We have to restore this trust. We have to bring back the confidence in the system, process, intentions, policies, moralities. This is the biggest challenge before the country. We need trust in our country. We need trust in leaders, in parties, in policies,” he added.
Modi also came down heavily on the rampant corruption during the UPA regime. “The kind of corruption we are witnessing in the country right now is the worst form of corruption that we have ever seen, anywhere in the world. And nobody seems to be worried at all. What a pitiful situation. They have not even spared coal mining,” he lamented.
Modi also dwelt at length on inclusive development and said:”We have adopted the mantra of Sauno Saath, Sauno Vikas (inclusion of everyone, development for everyone).”
“We do not want development for select sections of society only,” he added. This was an apparent snub to those who accused him of acting against the minority community.
Besides the overseas Gujarati community that had organised the event, Indian students in several US universities, like the University of Maryland, had gathered together to watch Modi’s live address.
Ridiculing those who run India’s foreign policy, Modi said it is unbelievable that India’s Foreign Minister committed the blunder of reading the speech of his counterpart from another country.
“Can you imagine that the Foreign Minister of our country, while addressing an international forum, took some other country’s papers and start reading from that speechIJ What a grave insult to our country,” Modi said in a reference to former External Affairs Minister SM Krishna reading out the speech of his Portuguese counterpart at the UNGA in 2011.