‘India a nation of under-achievers’

BJP prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi on Wednesday launched a scathing attack on the Congress-led UPA over economic slowdown, saying India has become a country of “under-achievers” and the main reason behind the “despair” prevailing in the country is that nobody takes responsibility. He however, described himself as an optimistic person. The Gujarat chief minister also attacked home minister Sushilkumar Shinde over his advisory on releasing “minority youth” detained wrongfully and alleged the UPA was playing votebank politics over the issue. He wrote a letter in this regard to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh demanding action against Mr Shinde.
“Home minister’s suggestion was against the constitutional principles and hit the ‘right to equality before law’. A crime is a crime irrespective of the birth marks of the criminal, and that his religious beliefs could not determine the guilt or innocence,” he wrote in the letter.
Mr Modi also wrote that the home minister should, instead, focus on monitoring the terror cases being investigated by the National Investigation Agency (NIA). “It would be interesting to know how many innocent youth are found to be wrongly implicated in these cases. I hope the home minister understands that every case of acquittal need not be a case of wrongful arrest and false/malafide implication,” he wrote.
While addressing a meet of a top induteries chamber in Gandhinagar, Mr Modi said, “If we had planned well we would have reached great heights. Today, India has become a country of under-achievers. There is no dearth of opportunity for growth of industry in the country. There is a need to come out of this despair. An atmosphere of confidence and trust is very important in India now.”
Taking on the Prime Minister, he said, “Our Prime Minister likes to speak about ‘inclusive growth’. Until we build capacity among poor through education, how can it happen?”
Mr Modi stressed on the need for a holistic approach, saying, “If we keep on exporting minerals, the country will not generate employment or development. With every resource, a holistic approach is very necessary.
Mr Modi said the country is at the beginning of the 21st century and there is eagerness in the air. “There was talk of the new century approaching but a strategy is yet to be formed,” he said.
He said two sectors are most important — agriculture and service sector — and there is a need to focus on improving productivity in agriculture and value additions to improve rural economy.
Mr Modi said the commonman needs to be made a stakeholder in development and boost should be given to smallscale industries. He also advised the Railways and defence services to start their own universities for filling up large number of vacancies in these sectors.