Too early to speak about super power: Shashi Tharoor on PM's 2047 vision

Congress leader Shashi Tharoor on Sunday said it is unfortunate to "paint fantasies" about a distant future when the country is going through a "tough time" and asserted that it is "too early to speak about super power because too many of our people are still super poor".

The remarks by Tharoor came after Prime Minister Narendra Modi, in an interview with PTI, said, "By 2047, I am sure that our country will be among the developed countries. Our poor people will comprehensively win the battle against poverty. Health, education and social sector outcomes will be among the best in the world. Corruption, casteism and communalism will have no place in our national life," Modi said.

Reacting to the prime minister's vision 2047, Tharoor said, "It is too early to speak about (being) super power because too many of our people are still super poor. We still have to first address the real problems of the poor, the marginalized, the deprived."

"The country is going through a tough time now in terms of high inflation, low employment, in fact unemployment is at record levels, and on top of that if people don't have jobs how can they afford higher prices for all their essential commodities. In these circumstances to paint fantasies of a distant future that is 25 years from now is a bit unfortunate," the MP from Thiruvananthapuram told PTI in Kottayam.

"We should focus on what we can do for the people of today," he said.

In his remarks in the interview, Modi said that for a long time, India was perceived as a "nation of over one billion hungry stomachs".

"But now, India is being seen as a nation of over one billion aspirational minds, more than two billion skilled hands, and hundreds of millions of young people," Modi said during his more than an hour-long interview with PTI late last week.