Modi compares his efforts to "rejuvenate" India with Gandhi on arrival as NRI hundred years ago

By Satyakam Mehta
It was an occasion for Prime Minister Narendra Modi to pat himself, going so far as to compare his claimed efforts to infuse a life into India with what Mahatma Gandhi had initiated exactly a century ago as "a non-resident Indian (NRI)". Modi inaugurated the Pravasi Bharatiya Diwas (PBD) by exhorting the NRIs and People of Indian Origin (PIO) to join India’s new growth story, which he believed had only one parallel – of what Mahatma Gandhi began doing on his return from South Africa to set foot on his home soil on January 8, 1915.

That was the only reason, he told NRIs, his government had decided to “make things easy” for the NRIs and PIOs. The announcement for the life-time visa, he said, was basically aimed at this. "A pravasi bharatiya (Gandhi) returned to India 100 years ago on this day to provide a new pathway to the country. Now, I welcome you all here as apravasi Gujarati to this great land,” Modi said amidst applause, soon after he formally set off the annual PBD at the Mahatma Mandir convention centre in Gujarat state’s capital, Gandhinagar.
Modi’s subtle refrain, that India is being noticed “now as never before”, was unmistakable. “I just made a suggestion to the United Nations that there should be an International Yoga Day and within a record 100 days this was ratified with as many as 177 of 193 UN-member countries seconding it. No proposal has ever been passed in the UN’s history till a minimum two years, but this was cleared in less than 100 days. That is how the world now looks at India,” Modi patted himself on the back. “The world is now waking up to India,” he averred.
Besides a lifetime visa for the diaspora, Modi said, the “irritating rule” for every PIO card holder to mark attendance at a police station once a week has been done away with. “All this reflects the present government’s concern for Indians overseas,” Modi insisted, adding, “Visa on arrival has been introduced, while documentation work is being made online to prevent the running and rushing to embassies.” And to smoothen out things more, “a Pravasi Bharatiya Kendra will be set up in Delhi.”

Also unmistakable was his frequent usage of the word “now” during his long speech, which his NRIs appeared to hear attentively. He likened India to be standing on a threshold of a new life, as it was when Gandhi shaped the direction of India’s freedom struggle a century ago and put it on a growth pedestal. He underlined, “Opportunities await you now in India. India has risen with a new strength now and the world looks at it with new hope.”
Making a subtle attack on his political opponents, especially the previous UPA government Modi said, the PBD event was first promulgated by former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee in 2003 when it got “enormous response, but later few bothered”. He added, “I always attended all these events since I understood always that the NRIs and PIOs could be key drivers of India’s growth and vice-a-versa. They may be staying in different countries but their yearning for India is indomitable, they get filled with tears and reach out with all resources at their hand”.
Suggesting that India was on a “new trajectory now”, he said, “It was now up to NRIs and PIOs spread across 200 countries to emerge as strong drivers to the country’s growth. I say India exists in all these countries and the hearts of those staying there always reaches out back home.”

Comments

Lata Mangeshkar, a Dalit from Devdasi family, 'refused to sing a song' about Ambedkar

By Pramod Ranjan* An artist is known and respected for her art. But she is equally, or even more so known and respected for her social concerns. An artist's social concerns or in other words, her worldview, give a direction and purpose to her art. History remembers only such artists whose social concerns are deep, reasoned and of durable importance. Lata Mangeshkar (28 September 1929 – 6 February 2022) was a celebrated playback singer of the Hindi film industry. She was the uncrowned queen of Indian music for over seven decades. Her popularity was unmatched. Her songs were heard and admired not only in India but also in Pakistan, Bangladesh and many other South Asian countries. In this article, we will focus on her social concerns. Lata lived for 92 long years. Music ran in her blood. Her father also belonged to the world of music. Her two sisters, Asha Bhonsle and Usha Mangeshkar, are well-known singers. Lata might have been born in Indore but the blood of a famous Devdasi family...

The soundtrack of resistance: How 'Sada Sada Ya Nabi' is fueling the Iran war

By Syed Ali Mujtaba* The Persian track “ Sada Sada Ya Nabi ye ” by Hossein Sotoodeh has taken the world by storm. This viral media has cut across linguistic barriers to achieve cult status, reaching over 10 million views. The electrifying music and passionate rendition by the Iranian singer have resonated across the globe, particularly as the high-intensity military conflict involving Iran entered its second month in March 2026.

'Batteries now cheap enough for solar to meet India's 90% demand': Expert quotes Ember study

By A Representative Shankar Sharma, Power & Climate Policy Analyst, has urged India’s top policymakers to reconsider the financial and ecological implications of the country’s energy transition strategy in light of recent global developments. In a letter dated April 10, 2026, addressed to the Union Ministers of Finance, Power, New & Renewable Energy, Environment, Forest & Climate Change, and the Vice Chair of NITI Aayog, with a copy to the Prime Minister, Sharma highlighted concerns over India’s ambitious plans for coal gasification and the Prototype Fast Breeder Reactor (PFBR).

Manufacturing, services: India's low-skill, middle-skill labour remains underemployed

By Francis Kuriakose* The Indian economy was in a state of deceleration well before Covid-19 made its impact in early 2020. This can be inferred from the declining trends of four important macroeconomic variables that indicate the health of the economy in the last quarter of 2019.

Incarceration of Prof Saibaba 'revives' the question: What is crime, who is criminal?

By Kunal Pant* In 2016, a Supreme Court Judge asked the state of Maharashtra, “Do you want to extract a pound of flesh?” The statement was directed against the state for contesting the bail plea of Delhi University Professor GN Saibaba. Saibaba was arrested in 2014, a justification for which was to prevent him from committing what the police called “anti-national activities.”

Food security? Gujarat govt puts more than 5 lakh ration cards in the 'silent' category

By Pankti Jog* A new statistical report uploaded by the Gujarat government on the national food security portal shows that ensuring food security for the marginalized community is still not a priority of the state. The statistical report, uploaded on December 24, highlights many weaknesses in implementing the National Food Security Act (NFSA) in state.

Why Indo-Pak relations have been on 'knife’s edge' , hostilities may remain for long

By Utkarsh Bajpai* The past few decades have seen strides being made in all aspects of life – from sticks and stones to weaponry. The extreme case of this phenomenon has been nuclear weapons. The menace caused by nuclear weapons in the past is unforgettable. Images of Hiroshima and Nagasaki from 1945 come to mind, after the United States dropped two atomic bombs on the cities.

Subaltern voices go digital: Three Indian projects rewriting history from the ground up

By A Representative A new wave of digital humanities (DH) work in India is shifting the focus away from university classrooms and English-language scholarship, instead prioritizing multilingual, community-driven archives that amplify subaltern voices . According to a review published in the Journal of Asian Studies , projects such as the People’s Archive of Rural India (PARI), the Oral History Narmada archive , and the Bhasha Research and Publication Centre are redefining how the country remembers its past — often without government funding or institutional support.

Beyond Lata: How Asha Bhosle redefined the female voice with her underrated versatility

By Vidya Bhushan Rawat* The news of iconic Asha Bhosle’s ‘untimely’ demise has shocked music lovers across the country. Asha Tai was 92 years young. Normally, people celebrate a passing at this age, but Asha Bhosle—much like another legend, Dev Anand—never made us feel she was growing old. She was perhaps the most versatile artist in Bombay cinema. Hailing from a family devoted to music, Asha’s journey to success and fame was not easy. Her elder sister, Lata Mangeshkar, had already become the voice of women in cinema, and most contemporaries like Shamshad Begum, Suraiya, and Noor Jehan had slowly faded into oblivion. Frankly, there was no second or third to Lata Mangeshkar; she became the first—and perhaps the only—choice for music directors and all those who mattered in filmmaking. Asha started her musical journey at age 10 with a Marathi film, but her first break in Hindustani cinema came with the film "Chunariya" (1948). Though she was not the first choice of ...

Search This Blog