Urging the youth to work on ideas, expand them, and lead Team India, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday said that enough ground work had been done to make it possible in the last nine years. “The run way is ready, you need to take off now,” he said.
He was speaking to a large crowd of students from across the country after inaugurating the colourful 26th National Youth Festival organised with the theme ‘Vikasit Yuva–Vikasit Bharat’ (Developed Youth–Developed India) at the Railway Ground in Hubballi on Thursday.
He told the youth not to be deterred by sceptics. “When we came up with Swachh Bharat, Digital India, and COVID vaccine, initially they made fun of us, then opposed and finally accepted. So be firm with your ideas, be ready to face ridicule and opposition, and finally they will be accepted,” he said.
He called on the youth to focus on “institution and innovation” as they had to build institutions along with achieving personal excellence through their innovative ideas.
Reference to mutts
The Prime Minister — who began his speech in Kannada by taking the names of Moorusavir Mutt and Siddharoodh Mutt (both revered by the Lingayat-Veerashaiva community) and referring to Hubballi as the land of Rani Chennamma and Sangolli Rayanna —emphasised the role of youth in making the 21st century “the century of India”. Mr. Modi said that ‘Digital India’ had opened up several avenues before the youth.
Referring to Swami Vivekananda’s tour of Karnataka and the Mysuru king’s contribution in his voyage to the Chicago convention, he said it was an example of the concept of ‘one nation, great nation’, which was now being pursued by the government.
Drawing the attention of the youth towards the emerging fields of artificial intelligence, machine learning, cyber security, and data science, he called on them to learn new skills to exploit opportunities. The government had come up with the NEP with focus on making the youth “future-ready”, he said.
Cooperative federalism
Likening the National Youth Festival as an example of cooperative federalism, the Prime Minister asked the youth to remember that even in competition, there was cooperation. “Ultimately whoever may win in the National Youth Festival, it will be the victory of India,” he said.
Earlier, the Prime Minister also remembered Siddeshwar Swami, who passed away recently, praised the valour of Chennamma and Rayanna, and paid tribute to the legends of Hindustani music from Dharwad and eminent litterateurs of the region.
