New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi sat down with Network 18 Group Editor Rahul Joshi for a comprehensive interview covering a multitude of topics spanning politics, economy, the criticism of his government following recent attacks on Dalits, vote bank politics and casteism and also offered a rare peek into himself, his working style and his closely held beliefs.
Appended below is the edited transcript of the interview translated from Hindi into English
Question: At the outset, thank you for giving this interview to Network 18. Two years ago you were elected with a historic mandate, the most decisive in three decades. How do you view the last two years and what do you think has been your biggest achievement?
PM Modi: After getting the responsibility of becoming the Prime Minister it has been about two years and three months. India is a democratic country and the people evaluate governments regularly. The media also evaluates. And these days, professional survey agencies also do this. And I think this is a good thing and that's why I leave it to the people to evaluate how my government has performed.
But I will definitely want that whenever my government is evaluated, the situation of the government before we came to power must be kept in mind, what the state of the country was, what the media was discussing. If we keep that in view, those days newspapers were filled with news of corruption, despair... People had lost hope, they thought everything had sunk.
If a patient, however good the doctor, is despondent, medicines will not cure him. But if the patient is hopeful, then even an average doctor can cure him. The reason for that is the patient's inner belief.
My first priority after forming the government was that the atmosphere of despair should be removed and to create hope and belief in the country. That doesn't happen with speeches. Concrete steps need to be taken, it has been shown to be done. And today after more than two years, I can say with certainty that there is hope not just in the people of this country, the trust of the entire world in India has grown.
There was a time when we were being seen as a sinking ship. In the BRICS, the ‘I’ (representing India) was seen as wobbly. Today it is said that if there is a bright spot, it is India. I think this in itself is a good way to evaluate.
But I will definitely want that whenever my government is evaluated, the situation of the government before we came to power must be kept in mind, what the state of the country was, what the media was discussing. If we keep that in view, those days newspapers were filled with news of corruption, despair... People had lost hope, they thought everything had sunk.
If a patient, however good the doctor, is despondent, medicines will not cure him. But if the patient is hopeful, then even an average doctor can cure him. The reason for that is the patient's inner belief.
My first priority after forming the government was that the atmosphere of despair should be removed and to create hope and belief in the country. That doesn't happen with speeches. Concrete steps need to be taken, it has been shown to be done. And today after more than two years, I can say with certainty that there is hope not just in the people of this country, the trust of the entire world in India has grown.
There was a time when we were being seen as a sinking ship. In the BRICS, the ‘I’ (representing India) was seen as wobbly. Today it is said that if there is a bright spot, it is India. I think this in itself is a good way to evaluate.
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