"This Is Our Biggest Enemy": In Gujarat, PM On How India Will Move Forward

Prime Minister Narendra Modi, addressing a large gathering in Gujarat's Bhavnagar on Saturday, declared that India faces no major adversary on the global stage, identifying instead the country's reliance on foreign countries as its greatest challenge.

"There is no major enemy of ours in the world," he told the crowd. "If we have any enemy, it is our dependence on other countries. This is our biggest enemy, and together we must defeat this enemy of India, the enemy of dependence."

He went on to stress that self-reliance was not simply an economic aspiration but a matter tied to national pride, dignity, and security. "The greater the foreign dependence, the greater the country's failure. For global peace, stability, and prosperity, the country with the world's largest population must become Atmanirbhar. If we remain dependent on others, our self-respect will be hurt. We cannot leave the future of 1.4 billion countrymen to others. We cannot leave the resolution for the country's development to the dependence of others. We cannot put the future of future generations at stake. There is only one medicine for a hundred sorrows, and that is a self-reliant India," he added.

PM Modi blamed successive Congress governments for having failed to nurture India's industrial and trade potential after independence. He pointed to what he described as a dual policy failure: first, the "license-quota raj" that kept India isolated from world markets for decades, and later, an overreliance on imports in the era of globalisation.

"India has no shortage of potential," he argued. "But after independence, Congress ignored all of India's potential. Even after six to seven decades of independence, India has not achieved the success it deserved. For a long time, the Congress government kept the country entangled in the license-quota raj, isolating it from the world market. And then, when the era of globalisation arrived, the only path to import was taken. Scams worth thousands, lakhs, and crores were committed. The policies of the Congress governments caused great harm to the country's youth. These policies prevented India's true strength from being revealed."

PM Modi unveiled multiple infrastructure projects in Bhavnagar spanning maritime, energy, health, transport, and urban sectors. In total, PM Modi inaugurated and laid the foundation stone for projects valued at over Rs 34,200 crore.