Modi blames Cong for stalled progress, says Atmanirbhar Bharat only way

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday (September 20) addressed a massive public rally in Gujarat's Bhavnagar, where he emphasised the importance of Atmanirbhar Bharat (self-reliant India) and accused the Congress of failing to harness the country’s potential after independence.

PM Modi participated in ‘Samudra se Samriddhi’ event in Bhavnagar and inaugurated or laid the foundation stone of development projects worth over Rs 34,200 crores.

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'Congress ignored India’s potential'

PM Modi said India never had a shortage of talent and capability, but decades of Congress rule stalled progress.

“India must become atmanirbhar and stand strong before the world. India has no shortage of potential, but after independence, Congress ignored all of India’s potential. Therefore, even after six or seven decades of independence, India did not achieve the success it deserved,” he said.

The prime minister further blamed the Congress for India’s economic stagnation, citing two major reasons. He alleged that for a long time, the Congress government kept the country entangled in the license-quota raj that kept India isolated from the world market, and later, a blind embrace of imports during globalisation, which was marred by scams worth “thousands, lakhs, and crores.”

Modi alleged these policies harmed India’s youth and prevented the nation’s true strength from being realised.

‘Dependence is the biggest enemy’

The prime minister stressed that India’s biggest challenge today was not foreign enemies but its dependence on other nations.

“We have no major enemy in the world. Our biggest enemy is our dependence on other countries. The greater the foreign dependence, the greater the country’s failure,” he declared.

He underlined that India must rise as Vishwabandhu (friend of the world), contributing to global peace, stability, and must become atmanirbhar.

“We cannot leave the future of 1.4 billion countrymen to others. There is only one medicine for a hundred sorrows, and that is a self-reliant India,” Modi said, urging citizens to join the resolve.

The prime minister underlined that India had no option other than becoming self-reliant in key sectors. "Be it chips or ships, we have to make them in India. We are going to have new reforms for the Indian ports. ‘One Nation, One Document’ and ‘One Nation, One Port Process’ will make trade easier, "Modi further noted.

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‘India once a global maritime power’

Taking another swipe at the Congress, Modi cited the shipping industry as an example of squandered opportunities. He recalled that India was once a global maritime power and a major shipbuilding centre.

“We were the biggest shipbuilding centre in the world. We used India-made ships just 50 years ago. But the country’s shipping sector fell victim to Congress’s misgovernance. Instead of focusing on shipbuilding in India, they prioritised paying rent to foreign ships. Our shipbuilding ecosystem collapsed, and today 90 per cent of our trade depends on foreign ships,” he said.

Modi said India currently pays around $75 billion, roughly Rs 6 lakh crore, annually to foreign shipping companies as rent, an amount almost as high as the nation’s defence budget. He said reversing this dependence was critical to India’s growth.

GST relief amid Navratri

Modi said he was pleased to visit Bhavnagar just as Navratri celebrations were about to begin.

“I have come to Bhavnagar at a time when the holy festival of Navratri is about to start. This time, because of the reduced GST rates, the markets will be more colourful,” he remarked.

He also offered a brief apology for not speaking in Gujarati, saying, “I apologise for speaking in Hindi but because lakhs of people from all over the country are connected to this event, I need to speak Hindi.”