“Trust surplus” is seen both in policies and hard work of the people in the country, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said, as he received the Lokmanya Tilak National Award in Pune.
Development is impossible if there is an atmosphere of mistrust, Modi said in his acceptance speech at the event, where he shared the stage with NCP chief Sharad Pawar.
Modi spoke of India’s journey from “trust deficit” to “trust surplus”.
Modi cited a survey conducted at an international level and said India is the country where people trust their government the most.
He said in the last nine years, the people of India made big transformations possible. People of India made the country the fifth largest economy in the world, he added.
Lokmanya Tilak understood the importance of a free press, the PM said. “He changed the course of the freedom struggle. The British called him the father of Indian unrest,” he added.
Today, the country is believing in itself in every sphere, Modi said.
He also said today some people get uncomfortable if a road named after a foreign invader is renamed.
The PM said he feels honoured to receive the award named after Lokmanya Tilak, who was at the forefront of India’s freedom struggle.
He said there are several things we could learn from the life of Tilak.
“Tilak had great faith in the Bhagavad Gita. The British had sent him to Mandalay prison, but there also, he continued his research on the Bhagavad Gita and wrote Gita Rahasya and introduced people to the power of karma,” Modi said.
He said Tilak insisted that people believe in themselves. “He used to make them believe in themselves. When people at that time made up their minds that it was impossible for India to break the chains of slavery, he gave people the confidence of freedom.
He had trust in our traditions, he had trust in our people, workers, he had trust in the prowess of India,” Modi said. In an atmosphere of mistrust, the nation’s development is not possible, he said. “Yesterday, I got a tweet from one Manoj Pochat, who reminded me of my Pune visit 10 years ago. I had then spoken at Fergusson College about the trust deficit.