Surnames do not matter in New India, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on Friday as he spoke at a news event. Modi was speaking at Manorama News Conclave in New Delhi. This is an India where the surnames of the youth do not matter...what matters is their ability to make their own name, said PM Modi. He said corruption was never an option in the era of New India, whoever the person. Modi said New India is about participative democracy, a citizen- centric government and pro-active citizenry. Here are PM Modi's 10 top quotes from the event:
- For many years, a culture was perpetrated in which aspiration became a bad word. Doors opened depending on your surname or contacts. Success depended on whether you belonged to an Old Boy’s club. Big cities, big institutions & big families…this is all that mattered. This is an India where the surnames of the youth do not matter. What matters is their ability to make their own name. This is an India where corruption is never an option, whoever the person is. Only competence is the norm.
- The economic culture of License Raj and Permit Raj struck at the heart of individual ambitions. But, today things are changing for the better. We see a spirit of New India in the vibrant start-up eco-system.
- Now, it is common to see people using Wi-Fi facilities in railway stations. Who would have ever thought this would be a reality. The system is the same, the people are the same yet, massive changes have taken place on the ground.
- How the spirit has changed in India can be summed up using just two words. Five years ago, people would ask- will we? Will we ever be free from dirt? Will we ever remove policy paralysis? Will we ever eliminate corruption?
- Today people say- we will! We will be a Swachh Bharat. We will be a nation free from corruption. We will make good governance a mass movement. The word ‘will’, which earlier denoted a pessimistic question now reflects the optimistic spirit of a youthful nation.
- You all know that our government has created over 1.5 crore homes for the poor at a rapid pace. This is a huge improvement over the previous government. A lot of people ask me that schemes and funds did exist previously also, then what did you do differently? We were conscious of the fact that we were not creating houses, but were building homes. We needed to move away from the concept of merely constructing four walls. Our approach was deliver more facilities, deliver more value, deliver in less time and deliver at no extra cost.
- Our vision for New India includes not only caring for those living in the nation but also outside. Our diaspora is our pride, contributing to India’s economic growth. Whenever any Indian overseas has faced a problem, we have been at the forefront of solving it. When Indian nurses were captured in different parts of West Asia, no stone was left unturned to bring them back home. The same spirit was seen when Father Tom, another son of Kerala, was captured.
- India is perhaps the only country in the world with so many languages. In a way it is a force multiplier. But language has also been exploited by selfish interests to create artificial walls in the country to divide.
- Today, I have a humble suggestion. Can we not use the power of language to unite? Can media play the role of a bridge and bring people speaking different languages closer. This is not as difficult as it seems.
- We can simply start with publishing one word in 10-12 different languages spoken across the country. In a year, a person can learn over 300 new words in different languages. Once a person learns another Indian language, he will come to know the commonality and truly appreciate the oneness in Indian culture. This can also give rise to groups of people interested to learn different languages.
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