Unfortunate That Obstacles Are Created In India’s Development: PM Modi Slams ‘Colonial Mindset’

Hitting out at the developed countries, PM Modi said that attempts are made to shut the path and resources for developing nations through which developed nations reached where they are today.

New Delhi: Speaking at a Constitution Day event organised by the Supreme Court, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday said that the Constitution was drafted in the light of the dreams seen by the people who lived and died for India’s Independence.

“Our Constitution drafters gave us the Constitution in the light of the dreams seen by the people who lived and died for the independence and by cherishing the thousands of years long great traditions of India,” PM Modi said, as quoted by news agency ANI.

In his address, the Prime Minister also hit out at developing nations for attempts are made to shut the path and resources for developing nations. He also said that in the name of freedom of expression and through other means obstacles are created in India’s development.

Talking about the role of the Constitution after India’s freedom struggle, PM Modi said: “Hundreds of years of dependence pushed India into several problems. The India that was once called a golden bird was suffering from poverty, starvation, and diseases. In that background, the Constitution always helped us in taking forward the nation”.

If we compare to other countries, then the nations that became independent around the same time as India, are way ahead of us today. It means that a lot of things still need to be done. We have to reach the goal together,” the Prime Minister stressed.

He emphasised that in reality, even after decades post-Independence, “a large section of people in the country had to suffer exclusion, crores of those people who didn’t even have a toilet at their house, who were living in the dark in the absence of electricity, who were without water”.

“Investing oneself in understanding their problems, their pain to make their lives easier - I consider this the real honour of the Constitution. I’m satisfied that in line with this sentiment of the Constitution, a vigorous drive is going on to convert exclusion into inclusion,” PM Modi said.

In his speech, the Prime Minister also talked about the trends with respect to developed and developing nations.

He stated how no nation directly exists as a colony to any other nation. “But it doesn’t mean that the colonial mindset has ended. This mindset is giving rise to many distortions. We can see a clear example of this in the hurdles cropping up in the development journey of developing nations,” he added, as quoted by ANI.

Criticising the developed countries, PM Modi said that attempts are made to shut the path and resources for developing nations through which developed nations reached where they are today. “In past decades, a web of different terminologies was spun for this. But the aim has always been one - to stop the progress of developing nations,” he stated.

Citing the recent COP26 Summit, the Prime Minister also claimed that “the issue of environment is also being attempted to be hijacked for this purpose. We saw an example of this in the recent COP26 Summit. If we talk of absolute cumulative emissions, developed nations have caused 15 per cent more emissions than India since 1850 to date”.

“Still, India is lectured on environmental conservation - that India that has living with nature embedded in its tradition, where God is seen even in plants, where the land is worshipped as the mother. For us, these values are not just confined to books,” he emphasised.

He further said that it is “unfortunate that obstacles are created in the development of our nation, sometimes in the name of freedom of expression and sometimes through other means. It’s attempted to judge our nation on parameters of other nations, without knowing our situation or aspirations of our youth”.

“Attempts are made to close the path to development. People who do this don’t have to bear its brunt. It has to be borne by that mother whose child can’t study in the absence of a power plant, by that father who can’t take his child on time to hospital in the absence of a road,” he added.

Constitution Day

The address comes as India celebrates Constitution Day today. 

Constitution Day is celebrated on November 26 every year as India’s Constituent Assembly formally adopted the supreme document on November 26, 1949. It came into force on January 26, 1950, and every year Indians celebrate the occasion as Republic Day.

The day is also known as ‘Samvidhan Diwas’.

The Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment had on November 19, 2015, notified the Union government’s decision to celebrate November 26 as ‘Constitution Day’ every year to promote Constitution values among citizens.

Meanwhile, earlier today, a fresh row ensued between the ruling BJP and opposition as around 15 parties, including the Congress, boycotted the programme organised by the Lok Sabha to celebrate the Samvidhan Samman Divas.

Besides the Congress, the Samajwadi Party (SP), the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), the Communist Party of India (CPI), the Communist Party of India (Marxist), the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK), the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD), the Shiv Sena, the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), the Trinamool Congress (TMC), the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD), the Revolutionary Socialist Party (RSP) and the Indian Union Muslim League (IUML) stayed away from the event, news agency PTI reported.

(With Agency Inputs)