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A strong economy is the driver of an effective foreign policy, said Narendra Modi, chief minister of Gujarat and prime ministerial choice of the Bharatiya Janata Party for the next general election. He said so while delivering the Nani Palkhivala Memiorial Lecture at the University of Madras. Modi, who spoke in English, read from a prepared speech, deviating occasionally from the written text.
He spoke in praise of Mahatma Gandhi and former prime minister Atal Behari Vajpayee in relation to the topic of his lecture, before coming down heavily on the ruling UPA coalition in Delhi and its policies. He particularly targeted Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Union Finance Minister P Chidambaram. "Today, the rupee is in the ICU (intensive care). I do not know why the Tamil people sent this person (Chidambaram, who is from Tamil Nadu) to Delhi," he said.
Apart from business and commerce, said Modi, one has to integrate strategical and security concerns into national policy. He praised Vajpayee's resolve in chaving the Pokhran nuclear tests done, seeing out the treat of sanctions from other big powers. We need such commitment to national security, based on our inherent economic strength, he said.
"The current dysfunction in Delhi has prevented military modernisation and upgrading of our defence infrastructure," said Modi, adding that modern warfare includes proxy wars. One needed to prepare strong walls against these. Inputs from state governments, he said, needed to be taken on while deciding on foreign policy; in fact, each state could be given one foreign country with which to develop a better relationship. The cultural and economic strengths of the states needed to be leveraged for a good global positioning.
He said the had great potential in the $3-trillion global tourism turnover but the country fared relatively poorly in this regard. What we needed, he said, was a confident and productive engagement with the world, with a sound economy, and the feeling that prices were under control at home.
Earlier he poked a lot of fun at the Centre for having reportedly got the Archaeological Survey of India to start excavations at Daundia Khera village in Uttar Pradesh's Unnao district, apparently to find buried gold.
"The government has started to dig for some 1,000 tonnes of gold after someone dreamt of it. You bring back the money that looters of public money have stashed in Swiss banks. That would be more than the value of 1,000 tonnes of gold," he jeered.
It put the Congress party on the defensive in Delhi, prompting its spokespersons to perceive the need for a response. "This is typical of Narendra Modi; he launches into issues without doing his homework," Congress spokeswoman Renuka Chaowdhury found it necessary to declare. "It was the Geological Survey of India which has conducted tests and found presence of a non-conductable material there. It is on their report that the ASI is carrying out the excavation." Then, adding credence to the report that it started with some religious figure's dream, "If the seer's dream is true or not, we will get to know soon."
