PM Modi said the country’s transformation from the constraints of colonial rule had been made possible by the capabilities of its young people.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday credited the country’s youth with driving India’s rise as the world’s fastest-growing major economy, its third-largest startup ecosystem and the nation’s emerging strength in semiconductors, artificial intelligence, deep tech and space, saying young Indians were now “giving impetus to the development of the world”.
The remarks came a day after Modi posted a video on Instagram offering to “forgive” students who had hurled expletives at him during weeks of nationwide protests led by the self-styled Cockroach Janta Party (CJP).
Triggered by a leak of the NEET-UG paper that forced a retest for around two million students, the agitation became the biggest political crisis of Modi’s third term, ending only after education minister Dharmendra Pradhan resigned last week and the government accepted the demonstrators’ demands, including examination-system reforms and the withdrawal of police cases against protesters.
Modi was speaking on Saturday after inaugurating the Swami Vivekananda Cultural Youth Centre — Viveka Smaraka — at the Sri Ramakrishna Ashrama in Mysuru. He said the country’s transformation from the constraints of colonial rule to the frontlines of global innovation had been made possible by the capabilities of its young people.
“Today, India is the world’s fastest-growing major economy. Who has made this possible? The capability of India’s youth. The youth of India are giving impetus to the development of the world,” Modi said.
Pointing to the recent launch of a privately built Indian rocket into space, he said the feat reflected “the growing capabilities of the country’s young innovators”, and that initiatives such as Atmanirbhar Bharat and Make in India were succeeding on the strength of the youth.
What young people needed, he said, was “the right opportunities, guidance and confidence to realise their dreams”.
Modi framed the message through Vivekananda, invoking the principle “Shiva Jnane Jiva Seva” — serving humanity is serving God — and urging young Indians to place the welfare of the poor and the nation above personal interests. The Viveka Smaraka, built at the site where Vivekananda stayed during his 1892 visit to Mysuru and from where he decided to travel to the 1893 Parliament of Religions in Chicago, should serve as “a powerful source of inspiration and energy” for that mission, he said.
Opposition parties, meanwhile, attacked the PM for his video message on Friday.
The Congress said the Prime Minister owed the country’s students an apology rather than an offer of forgiveness, remarking that while the country was asking the PM to apologise, he had instead “forgiven the country”. In a post on X, Rahul Gandhi said Modi had the “audacity to speak of forgiving students” when he had not visited a single family that had lost a child to suicide over what he called a “corrupt” exam system and cancelled papers.
“Nothing is more painful than seeing a parent grieve their child,” Gandhi said after meeting affected families during a day-long visit to Tamil Nadu. “Behind every young life lost is a family carrying pain that will never leave them — and serious questions about a broken education system.”
