Speaking to a charged crowd here, the PM underlined that when he began his journey 25 years ago as chief minister of Gujarat, he had never imagined that such a phase would come in his life. He said this was not an occasion for glorification of a person, but for looking at how far the country had come during this period. He maintained that he had always been an eager learner since school and would continue to have the same mindset in the future. “This day is not just for memories. It is a day for filling our pledges with new energy. This is a day for repeating and reinforcing the promise which says we will do it,” Modi said. With a cheering crowd repeating his words thrice, the Prime Minister said, “We will do it. Viksit Bharat by 2047 – we will do it.”
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The crowd further repeated the call for achieving other targets – making India the third-largest economy, Atmanirbhar Bharat, a global manufacturing hub, hosting the Olympics and achieving goals in space technology. “Nobody can stop this march,” Modi said.
Modi recalled that when he started out as CM, he had not contested an election before. “If I had a penchant for power, I would have jumped into the election arena before, but it was not my nature,” Modi said, claiming that his aim had always been selfless service. Referring to the situation in 2014, when he became PM, Modi said that at that juncture, the world had started saying India “is a gone case”. From “policy paralysis”, the scenario has transformed completely over the past 12 years, he claimed.
