From Covid-19 to Islamic terrorism and aggressiveness of China, Prime Minister Narendra Modi touched upon the current burning issues in the world in his speech at the United Nations General Assembly in New York today.
PM Modi started with paying tribute to those who have lost their lives in the Covid-19 pandemic and talked about India’s contribution to the fight against Coronavirus.
The prime minister said that he is representing a country that is known as the mother of democracy, which has completed 75 years of independence. Saying that India is the best example of a vibrant democracy, he said that it is the beauty of democracy in India that a kid who used to help his father selling tea at a railway station is addressing the UNGA for the fourth time.
“With the experience of 20 years of public service, I can say that, yes, democracy can deliver, yes democracy has delivered”, PM Modi said. Narendra Modi also quoted Pandit Deendayal Upadhyaya in his speech, saying that inspired by Deendayal Upadhyaya Ji’s philosophy of ‘Antyodaya’, India is moving ahead and ensuring integrated and equitable development for all. Development should be all-inclusive, all-pervasive, universal, and one that nurtures all, this is our priority, the PM said.
The PM said that in the last 7 years, more than 43 crore people have been brought into the banking system, more than 36 crore people have govt insurance protection, more than 50 crore people have been given the facility of free medical treatment. He informed that the Indian govt has launched a project to connect 17 crore homes with water supply lines to provide clean water.
PM Modi said that every sixth person in the world today is Indian, and when India grows, the world grows too, when India reforms, the world transforms. The science and technology-based innovations taking place in India can benefit the world. He said that the scale and cost of India’s tech solutions are incomparable. He informed how India’s Unified Payment Interface (UPI) is seeing more than 350 crore transactions in India.
Similarly, the CoWIN platform developed by India is providing digital support to administer crores of vaccines in a day.
The PM said that he wants to inform the UNGA that India has developed the world’s first DNA vaccine which can be administered to anyone above 12 years of age, and that an mRNA vaccine is in the final stages of development in the country, while Indian scientists are also developing a nasal vaccine against Covid-19. He informed that India has restarted exporting vaccines to counties across the world. The PM invited all vaccine manufacturers to make vaccines in India. He also said that while technology is important in today’s world, it is also important to ensure technology with democratic values.
After that, he turned to the burning issue of extremism, and said that the threats of regressive thinking and extremism are increasing. In this situation, the world will have to make science-based rational and progressive thinking the basis of development. Talking about encouragement to science in schools, he informed that on the occasion of 75th anniversary of independence, India is sending 75 satellites to space which are being made by Indian students.
But on the other hand, a country with a regressive thinking is using terrorism as a political tool, PM Modi said without naming Pakistan. He said that they should understand that terrorism a big threat to them also. “It is important to ensure that the land of Afghanistan is not used for spreading terrorism and terror attacks”, he added. The PM urged the world to be careful that no country tries to use the fragile situation in Afghanistan as a tool for own benefit. Saying that people, women, children, and minorities in Afghanistan need help, he said the world should take the responsibility for the same.
The PM further said that Oceans belong to all, and the ocean resources should be used, not abused. Oceans are the lifeline of international trade, we have to protect them from expansion and exclusion. The international community must raise its voice in unison to empower rule-based world order, the PM said without naming China, which is trying to expand its marine territory in several areas.
Narendra Modi also pointed fingers towards China, without naming, in reference to the origin of Covid-19 and the controversies related to the Ease of Doing Business ranking. He said that global organisations have lost their credibility, which they had earned through works of decades, due to such issues. PM Modi was referring to WHO being accused of repeatedly shielding China in the matter of the origin of Coronavirus, and the World Bank’s ease of doing business ranking which was suspended after it was found that China had manipulated its rankings.
PM Modi concluded his speech at the UNGA by quoting a poem by Rabindranath Tagore.
