In his Independence Day speech on Monday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said that India should take a pledge to become a developed country by 2047 – the 100th year of independence.
The prime minister urged citizens of the country to work towards achieving the “panch pran”, or five pledges, in the next 25 years. Apart from making India a developed country, the citizens should remove traces of colonial mindset, take pride in their roots, forge unity and inculcate a sense of duty, Modi said.
“We need to now move with a renewed focus and resolve for the next 25 years, and this can be made possible through the strength and determination of 130 crore Indians,” the prime minister said in his ninth Independence Day speech from the Red Fort in Delhi.
The World Bank currently classifies India as a lower-middle-income country, the second from the bottom of the four income groups it puts countries into—low, lower-middle, upper-middle, and high income. While the multilateral institution junked the ‘developed’ and ‘developing’ nomenclature some years back, a developed nation would still correspond with a high-income country. According to the latest World Bank statistics, India’s average gross income per capita, at $2,170 in 2021, was ahead of Nigeria at $2,100 and Pakistan at $1,500 but trailed Bangladesh at $2,620 and Bhutan at $2,840.
The Prime Minister said India must be a developed nation in next 25 years, terming it as an aspirational society. He appealed and asked for the support of the people to walk forward with him on these 5 pledges assuring that India will definitely be a developed nation in every front if everyone walks on the path of these 5 pledges.
- India will have to walk forward with very big resolutions. If we have to achieve the target of a developed nation then nothing less than this will matter.
- We have to leave our servitude mindset from every inch, corner, thinking, and mentality. We don’t have to carry forward any reflection of our servitude in any form in the country and have to overcome this.
- We have to be proud of our heritage which gave India its golden glory in the past.
- We have to keep in mind our ‘…ekta and ekjutta (Unity and solidarity)… na koi apna aur na koi paraya (we belong to everyone and everyone belongs to us)… ek barat shresth bharat (one country, pride country).
- Responsibilities of citizens in which even a Prime Minister is not excluded, because he is also a citizen first.
