Ever since Independence, over the past subsequent decades, India has gradually cemented its position in international equations. At a time when the world order was largely shaped by the United States of America, India with its soft power diplomacy was managing its evolution adhering to independent domestic and foreign policies. The journey of the last six decades of India has been witness to significant milestones and adulated by the leading world order. Our nation has always been a home to revolutionary visionaries, the actions of whom have led the nation, ensuring the convergence of academia, industry and investors. Our nation is pushing its way forward on the global map through transformation, the consequence of which would be a new Bharat which is aspirational and progressing at a very high speed.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s recently delivered Independence Day speech was a reflection of India’s rising glory. With the global landscape on an important shift, India has an opportunity to reposition itself by offering a direction to the inclusive and equitable international order. This appears to be taking shape with Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the helm of the affairs.
Every nation in its journey of development has had a phase where the speed of it has been on the pinnacle. While India has been gradually moving in the direction of the same, over the span of last nine years, the government has made significant strides in all thes sectors including roads, highways, railways, aviation etc. Prime Minister Modi’s governance has ensured the inception of countless initiatives that have bolstered the economy and aimed at achieving the ambitious goal of a 5 trillion dollar economy. Prime Minister Modi in his Independence Day speech articulated what India has achieved by walking on his blue print and also laid his vision for the next few decades that would ensure India’s global influential relevance for the next 1000 years.
Ever since Prime Minister Modi assumed office in 2014, he has been giving a special significance to the year 2023. At his very first speech in the temple of democracy, he emphasized on the potential of India in the international order by virtue of the its internal developmental status. He laid the foundation of his tenure with ambitious goals which were never ever imagined before. While doing so, the Prime Minister also outlaid the roadmap for it. In the last nine years of his tenure, the government has ensured various optimistic policy reforms and subsequent achievements. With various economic reforms resulting in an economic growth trajectory, we have shown the world that India is capable of realizing its development goals within the rubric of an inclusive democracy and a trade friendly nation. At a time when the global situation is challenging, we have ensured that India’s overall exports have been on the rise.
A decade ago, the Indian GDP was the eleventh largest in the world. However, now India’s economy has overtaken the United Kingdom’s in terms of size, making it the fifth biggest. PM Modi had years ago envisioned that 2023 will be the year of “Amrutkal” for the country. Now not only the RBI but international agencies as well have echoed the same. IMF has projected that India will move into fourth place in 2025 and into third place in 2027 with the size of the Indian economy reaching a whopping USD 5.4 trillion. This is the same ambitious dream envisioned by the leader of our nation. Though this appeared to many and the Opposition as a distant dream, leading economists of the nation and abroad have now begun acknowledging that it is no longer unachievable. Prime Minister Modi in his Independence Day speech had reiterated that it is “Modi’s guarantee” that India will become the third largest global economy in the next five years. With all of these developments, India has now found its true respect and acceptance in the comity of other nations.
Given the velocity of changes on the international platform, there have been various occasions where the hegemonies of the powerful nations have appeared to be in the conflict. This has led the world go in a state of ambiguity as for every nation, ensuring independent domestic and international policies adhering to the changes in the world is proving to be quite a friction. However, India, with the vision of Prime Minister Narendra Modi is the only country which has emerged as a bridge between the many extremes of the world.
It is imperative here to mention that in his address to the Ugandan Parliament few years ago, Prime Minister Narendra Modi affirmed that “India’s development partnership will be guided by priorities” – a position that contrasts sharply with the West’s focus on governance reforms and China’s economic policies in the region.
The recipient led partnership framework of India is proving to be a new solution for the developmental pathways that are economically acceptable and sustainable for the other countries. These policies are a result of the vision of those who are at the helm of affairs, in our case, Prime Minster Narendra Modi. With the Prime Minister’s vision and his government’s policies, we are gradually pioneering the fundamentals that will shape international development corporation.
Historically, for over a century, India has been at the forefront of laying the foundations of almost everything. Historical excerpts of our nation have with proof claimed that our understanding of the science and possibilities have become the foundation stone for all the modern day’s advancements. Right from the economic might to strategical insight, India has been the epitome of governance and development.
It was for a reason that we were once titled as “Sone ki Chidiya”. However, with numerous invasions on our country, we gradually lost our grandeur. Having said so, the dream of becoming the world super power is yet again perceived. Once again, becoming the same “Sone ki Chidiya” is being talked upon by our leadership. With PM Narendra Modi at the driving seat of governance, India has again enhanced and ensured the social contract between our own state, industry and civil society. The amendments and repealing of different legislations are a testimony to the fact that the pattern of governance is changing and adapting to times of economic and social radiance.
Prime Minister Modi has given special focus to people friendly governance. He has ensured the phenomenon where the government has given significant consideration to industry voices, the industries have appreciated the objectives of the government and both have exhibited a sincerity in their commitment to the common individual. These are the founding blocks of Prime Minister’s New India.
India which is a home to 140 crore Indians, have invariably sustained a distinctive democratic ethos. While doing so, the Indian government over the last 9 years has curated its foreign policy that is defined not only by national interest but also by expressing consonance and harmony with the rest of the developing world. With PM Modi’s efforts, India is now perceived to be the “Champion of hopes of the developing world”. The Prime Minister’s visit to such foreign nations is a personification of the above phrase.
With India emerging as the influential power in the global landscape, Prime Minister Modi is looking beyond the conventional parameters of economic, political and military might. Instead, his vision is a reflection of his ambition of creating a consensus amidst the global order with India’s ancient and historic view of the world. To me, this in its truest sense, is “Reclaiming India’s lost Glory”.
Vishwas Pathak is Co-Chief Spokesperson, BJP Maharashtra.
