The U.S. government may have denied a visa to him, but Gujarat Chief Minister and BJP’s Prime Ministerial candidate Narendra Modi continues to address global audiences.
On Monday, Mr. Modi addressed the Global Meet of Emerging Markets Forum in Washington through video conferencing, delivering his refrain on “Effective Governance: Getting results in a democracy.”
Gujarat success
It may have been a global meet, but the Chief Minister spoke largely on his national ambition through the prism of his own avowed success story of Gujarat, promising that he could do to the country what he did to his home State.
“Those in the government have to understand that people’s good is the biggest agenda. Governments are guardians of people’s interests,” Mr. Modi said.
“Humility is important and governments must accept the collective wisdom of the people. People are ready to listen for development.”
‘Bitter pills swallowed for greater good’
He added: “People are ready for bitter pills. The only assurance they want is what is being done is for a greater good.”
Mr. Modi said that when he took over as Chief Minister, the energy sector was in a bad shape but he called in farmers and told them they needed was more water, and not electricity.
“I appealed to them for water conservation through micro irrigation. The government and the people worked together and we did plenty of work in water harvesting,” he said, adding that groundwater tables had risen in the State while expenses of farmers had come down.
‘Per drop more crop’
The Chief Minister said Gujarat had never been an agricultural State but with the slogan of ‘per drop more crop’, the average annual agricultural growth rate in the State had gone up to 10 per cent.
