00:00 Welcome to another episode of Opinion.
00:02 You know, Opinion is the most favorite program of the week. It's my most favorite program of the
00:17 week. You know why? Because I can talk what I feel like. I don't have to get research data,
00:24 you know, clips and reports and all. I don't have to show you all that. I can tell you
00:30 what I feel like. Of course, as always, it's up to you what you take, what you don't.
00:35 Now, this week, I had again gone for a social function. And somebody came up to me and said
00:43 that, you know, Sujith, you made a statement which I thought was wrong, this gentleman told me.
00:49 A very senior gentleman. In fact, he is into production. Very few people in production that
00:54 I know, he is one of them. So, he is into production and all that. Large multinational
00:59 company. He is at a global level job. He came and told me, he said, listen, you know what,
01:03 India will grow, and I said this, he is right, I said, India will grow regardless whichever
01:11 government it is. India will grow regardless whichever Prime Minister sits in that chair.
01:16 India will grow because India is poised to grow. I said, no one government or no one person can
01:21 take credit of anything that has happened in India. I said that. He said, that was a very,
01:28 very loosely made statement, he told me. It's not like that. He said, what do you mean,
01:34 India will grow? He said, if there is a bad Prime Minister, if the Prime Minister doesn't work,
01:38 will India grow? Look at what happened now, in the last 10 years. Look at how we have transformed.
01:45 I mean, he said, let's just take a simple example. You know, that famous whatever cliché that is
01:50 going around, that joke that, you know, in Pakistan's flag, we have moon and in moon,
01:56 we have Indian flag. So, you know, something of that sort, he said. You know, all this is
01:59 happening. Look at what happened. You know, where is Pakistan today and where is India?
02:03 We are in the moon. So, he said, do you think that it is not because of the government?
02:08 It is not because of the current Prime Minister, who is working day and night to make all this
02:15 happen? Okay. Now, the thing is, I am not disputing that the Prime Minister is working very hard.
02:22 I'm not saying that this government has not done good work. I'm not saying all of that.
02:26 What I'm saying, and I repeat, and I stick to what I say, that India growth is not because of
02:34 one government, nor is it because of one person. And that is, I will never change my opinion on
02:40 that one. Nor will I change the opinion that tomorrow if there is another government coming
02:46 in, and if there is another Prime Minister, regardless of which that government is, who the
02:49 Prime Minister is, India will still grow because we are poised to grow. Now, I will give you a
02:55 simple example. You see, when you say that, Pakistan dekho kidhar hai, and see, look where we are.
03:04 Okay. Pakistan got independence 14th August, 1947. India got independence 15th August, 1947.
03:14 We got independence almost on the same day. In fact, Pakistan is a day elder to us.
03:18 What made the difference? What made us go to the moon and Pakistan couldn't? And I don't say this
03:27 in any condescending format, because I don't like to condescend another country saying that,
03:32 "We have gone to the moon, you have not." All that, I don't like. They have not gone to the
03:37 moon. Maybe they will. I hope they do. I hope they progress. So, I am not into that kind. I am
03:43 not there to condescend at all. But the point I am trying to make is, Pakistan has not gone.
03:48 India has gone. Can you imagine what that reason is? And the reason I tell you that it is not one
03:57 man is because it is not the Modi government that made us go to the moon. It is not the Modi
04:02 government. Because if we have gone to the moon, it is thanks to the institute that a person called
04:12 Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru built in 1947. That institute that was built in 1947, that organization
04:21 that was built in 1969 by Indira Gandhi, that organization got us to the moon today. So,
04:27 how can this credit go to one person or one political party? Unfortunately, Jinnah didn't
04:33 make those institutes. Jinnah and his team, whatever, Bhutto and all the other prime ministers
04:39 and generals and all didn't make an ISRO. Our prime ministers did. Therefore, they couldn't
04:46 go to the moon and we went to the moon. Logic. If that is the logic, how can this credit go to one
04:52 person and one government? Fundamentally, it's wrong. No? Fundamentally, it's wrong. It is
04:59 because of several governments' foresight, several leaders' foresight that we are in moon today.
05:06 And we will go to sun, maybe, God willing, grace of God, we will maybe cross our solar system one
05:14 day. It's all because of somebody's vision, somebody's foresight. And what really happens
05:25 is when the vision is right, when the foresight is right, the foundation is right. We are based
05:32 on a fantastic foundation, scientific, education-wise, we are based on a fantastic foundation.
05:41 This foundation may, building up is very easy. So, if at all I give credit to a Modi government
05:48 and the governments before that is for building on this strong foundation, call me anything,
05:55 call me I am biased or whatever you call me, but this is the fact. This is a fact. You can't deny
06:02 it. So, if you don't respect the foundation and you respect the last floor that is built in a
06:13 building, I mean, what do you say to that? What do you say to that? If you are 21st floor,
06:22 it is not the 21st floor that made the building, it is the foundation of the 21st floor that made
06:27 the building and that is how you could build the 21st floor. And that's precisely the point I wanted
06:32 to make. We were lucky to have great visionaries. We were lucky to have people with great foresight.
06:39 Now, you know why I am saying this and why I wanted to say this in this opinion?
06:44 Is because if you do not respect the people who sowed the seed, I said this even in that editorial,
06:52 if you do not respect people who sow the seeds of growth, if you do not respect them,
06:58 leaders will stop thinking about tomorrow, about day after, about 50 years. Leaders will
07:04 stop thinking, especially the kind of leaders we have currently. They will do everything to
07:11 please their voters today. Every step, every investment, every venture will be for today,
07:19 which means tomorrow's India will have no investment. There will be no ISRO that somebody
07:27 will build in 1969 so that in 2023 we can land in moon's south pole. Nobody will do that.
07:35 And that is why as a society and as a country, it is important that we rever those people who
07:44 build, who started these kind of organizations. We celebrate those people who started this kind
07:50 of organizations. And because of our political narrow-mindedness, we should not shun those
07:58 people. It is thanks to them that we are where we are. That's the point I wanted to make.
08:06 Till I see you next time in my most favorite program, like I always say, opinion. Namaskar.
08:20 (Music)
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