In 2013, the BJP’s prospective Prime Ministerial candidate Narendra Modi visited Sri Ram College of Commerce in the national capital to reach out to a young audience outside Gujarat. (File photo)On Saturday, 13 years into the top office at the Centre – and after protests in Delhi and other places that made the government decide that ministers should visit campuses to interact with Gen Z – Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited the Sri Ram College of Commerce (SRCC) to deliver a speech on Teacher’s Day at a time when the college turns 100.In 2013, the BJP’s prospective Prime Ministerial candidate Narendra Modi visited Sri Ram College of Commerce (SRCC) in the national capital to reach out to a young audience outside Gujarat.In 2013, Modi addressed a packed auditorium, with an enthralled audience of students, though there were stray protests outside the college gate. Students were capturing Modi on the camera as he spoke.He had said the youth should not be seen as new-age voters alone but as “new-age power”. Modi, then CM of Gujarat, said the state under him had given one-third focus on each of the sectors – agriculture, industry and services – so that a crisis in any one in a year did not impact the state deeply. He told the audience that people all over drank milk produced in Gujarat and ate salt produced in the state, while underlining that the state wasn’t fertile. He joked that it had Registan (desert) on one side and Pakistan on the other.Modi had also showcased the Vibrant Gujarat Summit, saying that he hosted one days after elections and yet had more than a 100 countries in attendance. He recalled that Japan had begun to prepare for the Olympics long before it hosted them – and that a small country like South Korea had shaken the world with its hosting of the Olympics – but India’s preparation for the Commonwealth Games in Delhi during UPA days was uninspiring.Modi told the audience early in his speech, after sipping half a glass of water in front of him, that the optimists would think that the glass is half full and the pessimists that it’s half empty. He added that he belonged to a third kind – he saw it as full to the brim, half with water and half with air.Modi said that he wasn’t a teacher but was addressing a college, adding that India should export teachers to the world, who could capture the minds of a generation in other countries. He said Gujarat had a forensic science university – an area that was necessary to address cyber frauds – and a university to train policemen, something unknown elsewhere.Story continues below this adModi’s speech at that time largely steered clear of political controversies at a time when the serving UPA government was facing stiff anti-incumbency, and spoke a language of hope for the future of the country. He suggested that India’s time had arrived and it needed to make use of the opportunity. Modi said that while it was said that the world was looking at India as it was a big market to “dump” its goods in, India should excel as a producer so that it could decide where in the world to sell its produce. He told the audience that Made In Japan was a brand in his childhood – and such was the value of the brand that everyone trusted Japanese products without looking at the name of the company or the village where the product was made.Modi recalled that US president Bill Clinton had visited a village near Jaipur, and added that villagers were surprised when a Dalit villager asked him whether “you still consider my country poor and backward”. Clinton said he did not believe so, and that he would recall this episode wherever he went, Modi said, adding that Indians were second to none in the world.Modi said that the world would not wait for India if we said “hoti hai, chalti hai, dekhenge, karenge”, the world would move ahead. He told cheering students that metro coaches of Delhi were produced in Gujarat. He emphasised on scale of work, and underlined that development politics was the only need of the hour. Modi said that the country had been “destroyed by vote bank politics”.Vikas Pathak is deputy associate editor with The Indian Express and writes on national politics. He has over 17 years of experience, and has worked earlier with The Hindustan Times and The Hindu, among other publications. He has covered the national BJP, some key central ministries and Parliament for years, and has covered the 2009 and 2019 Lok Sabha polls and many state assembly polls. He has interviewed many Union ministers and Chief Ministers. Vikas has taught as a full-time faculty member at Asian College of Journalism, Chennai; Symbiosis International University, Pune; Jio Institute, Navi Mumbai; and as a guest professor at Indian Institute of Mass Communication, New Delhi. Vikas has authored a book, Contesting Nationalisms: Hinduism, Secularism and Untouchability in Colonial Punjab (Primus, 2018), which has been widely reviewed by top academic journals and leading newspapers. He did his PhD, M Phil and MA from JNU, New Delhi, was Student of the Year (2005-06) at ACJ and gold medalist from University Rajasthan College in Jaipur in graduation. He has been invited to top academic institutions like JNU, St Stephen’s College, Delhi, and IIT Delhi as a guest speaker/panellist. ... Read More Tags:Narendra ModiSri Ram College of Commerce