Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday said India had a chance to rise once again as a global economic power and suggested that, with his “clear road map” to channelise entrepreneurial capabilities of the country’s 1.25 billion people, it could match China.
“This is a country that once upon a time was called ‘the golden bird’. We have fallen from where we were before. But now we have the chance to rise again. If you see the details of the last five or ten centuries, you will see that India and China have grown at a similar pace.
“Their contributions to global GDP have risen in parallel and fallen in parallel. Today’s era once again belongs to Asia. India and China are both growing rapidly, together,” he told CNN in an interview.
On comparisons often drawn between the two neighbours, he said India did not need to emulate China and must become only India.
Mr. Modi said he had a lot of faith in the entrepreneurial nature of India’s 1.25 billion people and said, “I have a clear roadmap to channel it.”
Asked if he wished to replicate the authority enjoyed by the dictatorial regime in China, Mr. Modi said if there were no democracy then someone like him, “born in a poor family, would not be sitting here”.
“See, the biggest thing is that the people of the country must have faith. That trust should never break. If I can win the confidence of the people of India, not from my speeches but by my actions, then the power of 1.25 billion Indians will come together to take the country forward,” he said. Asked if India was concerned over China’s postures over the East China and South China seas, Mr. Modi called for faith that China would accept global laws and play its role in joint progress and cooperation.
