New Delhi:
Prime Minister Narendra Modi returned to his analogy about what fills a glass that appears half empty, as he returned to Delhi College’s Shri Ram Faculty of Commerce (SRCC) on Saturday night, 13 years after a speech on the identical place grew to become the launchpad for his projection because the BJP’s prime ministerial face.
“I gave the instance of a glass of water, and spoke of three views on it,” PM Modi recalled on the SRCC centenary gathering. “That was the time when the nation was going through loads of negativity. At the moment, I mentioned I see the glass as full, with half water and half air.”
The road he was recalling was delivered in February 2013, when he was chief minister of Gujarat. Holding up a glass of water then, he had mentioned optimists would name it half full and pessimists half empty. “I’m somebody who sees a path totally different from each of these paths. I’ve a 3rd mind-set, that this glass is full, half with water and half with air,” he had mentioned.
PM Modi mentioned the 2013 deal with was now being revisited extensively: “The affect of that speech will be felt now as effectively. He added that whilst he’s from a celebration, BJP, that was within the Opposition at the moment – Congress-led UPA was in energy – he had not used the stage for criticism. “No matter I mentioned was with conviction, and I walked that path,” he mentioned.
“Development On A Excessive”
A big a part of Saturday’s speech was constructed as a distinction between the India of 2013 and the nation’s current place, plus the imaginative and prescient of a ‘Viksit Bharat’ or a “developed India” by 2047, when India will have fun 100 years of Independence.
The SRCC go to comes at a time when PM Modi is extra pointedly specializing in younger Indians after a current protest by the Cockroach Janta Get together (CJP) introduced Gen-Z points entrance and centre in Indian politics. He is taken to utilizing Instagram much more these days, simply as he sought to talk to the youth through the SRCC lecture in 2013.
“If you happen to go to the web and watch the information round 2013, see what the headlines have been,” he mentioned at SRCC on Saturday. “The headlines have been like ‘Military personnel killed at LoC’, ‘Inflation excessive at 10%’, and about corruption.”
He added, “In all places there was ‘coverage paralysis’, and the world was counting us among the many ‘fragile 5’ (economies),” he mentioned. “There was negativity and wrestle. There have been these days, after which there’s the current time,” he mentioned.
He cited the newest quarterly development information. “Just some days again, the Q1 GDP numbers got here out. This got here at a time when there’s a world disaster. And this clearly exhibits India’s power,” PM Modi mentioned. “Those that needed to push India into the ‘fragile 5’ are usually not in a position to digest these numbers.” He listed automobile gross sales among the many markers of the shift. “Building, manufacturing, and industrial exercise have elevated. Meaning India isn’t just rising however transferring quick as effectively.”
The 7.8 per cent first-quarter determine has been questioned by some economists and by Opposition leaders. PM Modi named no critic, describing them as a substitute as “naraaz fufa-ji” (grumpy uncles) who “see solely negativity”. On safety, he mentioned: “Now, terrorism is at its finish; and in the event that they dare, then the military goes inside and ends them.” India struck terror infrastructure throughout the border beneath Operation Sindoor final yr.
Reacting to the speech, Congress MP and spokesperson Pawan Khera wrote in Hindi on X: “Such a boring speech that even onions would burst into tears!”
Congress chief Kanhaiya Kumar commented: “PM Modi spoke solely of 2013 and 2047. He didn’t converse on problems with the scholars or the general public at giant.”
भाई साहब, ऐसा बोरिंग भाषण कि प्याज़ भी रो पड़े।
— Pawan Khera 🇮🇳 ಪವನ್ ಖೇರಾ (@Pawankhera) September 5, 2026
12, 13, 100: Numbers Inform Story
Narendra Modi’s two SRCC appearances are separated by the lengthy arc of his nationwide political profession. In February 2013, he got here to this school as chief minister of Gujarat, weeks into his fourth time period in Gandhinagar and but to be named his celebration’s candidate for nationwide workplace. He was in his twelfth yr as chief minister.
On Saturday he returned with 12 years as prime minister behind him, in his third consecutive time period since 2014. Subsequent month he completes 25 years as head of presidency, including his stints in Gujarat and on the Centre.
The 2013 deal with was titled ‘Rising Enterprise Fashions within the World Situation’, nevertheless it was not restricted to enterprise. It was a governance manifesto aimed squarely at younger voters.
“I’m involved {that a} part of our society, and particularly folks within the political world, see the nation’s youth as merely ‘new-age voters’,” he had mentioned then. “I need my nation to just accept that our youth are ‘new-age energy’.”
Saturday’s occasion fell on Lecturers’ Day. In 2013, talking about an institute in Gujarat, Modi had mentioned: “When a businessman goes overseas to export items, he captures {dollars} and kilos. However when a instructor goes, they seize a complete technology.”
Modi had met the SRCC governing physique at his residence in April to mark the centenary and launched a commemorative postage stamp for the event.
