PM Modi positions India as future growth powerhouse

India will soon emerge as a global economic powerhouse, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on Wednesday as he declared that his aim is to make the country a global growth engine and accused the previous Congress-led governments of trying to discourage foreign investors from coming to Gujarat.

- Maulik Pathak

 

Speaking at an event to mark 20 years of success of the Vibrant Gujarat Summit, Modi said his government sowed the seeds of a Vibrant Gujarat 20 years ago, and it developed into a big tree.

“We are standing at such a phase that India will soon emerge as global economic powerhouse,” he said. “It was my guarantee to you from a few years from now, in front of your eyes, India will be among three top economies of the world.”

He said that the summit — aimed at wooing global investors — was started 20 years ago to make the state a growth engine for India. “After 2014, our aim became to make India a global growth engine,” he said.

He also hit out at the previous United Progressive Alliance government, saying central ministers would refuse to attend the event and even threatened foreign investors to discourage them from participating.

“...those who ran the central government saw Gujarat’s development through the prism of politics ...In-person, they would tell me that they would like to attend but would later refuse,” Modi said.

Reacting to the PM’s speech, Gujarat Congress president and Rajya Sabha MP, Shaktisinh Gohil said, “They should not imply that they are solely responsible for Gujarat’s progress. In the past, when there were no Vibrant Gujarat summits, the state still held the top rank in development, and at that time, the Congress was in power.”

Modi — who was Gujarat’s chief minister when the summit was launched in September 2003 — alleged that far from cooperating, the previous government put hurdles in his way. “Twenty years have passed... we cherish all the memories — both sweet and bitter. Today, the entire world is watching Vibrant Gujarat.”