PM Modi addresses Indian diaspora at Munich, lays out roadmap for next 25 years

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New Delhi, June 26

A day ahead of his scheduled address at the G7 summit in Germany and bilateral meetings, Prime Minister Narendra Modi addressed the Indian diaspora at Munich. Laying out a plan for next 25 years, he spoke about existing government schemes and mentioned how democracy was crushed during Emergency on this day in 1975.

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Terming Emergency as a “black spot on our democratic history”, he said democratic traditions responded to it, in an obvious reference to the humiliating electoral loss of Indira Gandhi in 1977.

“We Indians are proud of our democracy. Today, we can proudly say India is the mother of democracy,” the PM said, adding that diversity of culture, food, clothes, music and traditions makes our democracy vibrant. “India has shown that democracy can deliver and has delivered,” he said.

Talking about the change, he said, the “chalta hai” (status quoist) attitude has been shed. “Our slogan is we have to do and do it on time. The target was to have 40% of power from non-fossil fuels by 2030, we have already met the target in 2022,” the PM said. “Today, every village is open defecation-free and has electricity. Almost 99% of villages have clean cooking fuel. India is providing free ration to 80 crore poor for the past two years,” he asserted.

“In the last century, Germany, among others, took benefit from the industrial revolution. Now, India will not be left behind in the fourth industrial revolution, it will lead the world,” Modi said.