HTLS 2017: PM Modi says people now have more faith in themselves and the country

India has come a long way in the past two years and there has been a significant change in the mindset of the country, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on Thursday.

Delivering the inaugural address at the 15th edition of the Hindustan Times Leadership Summit, Modi also said people didn’t vote for a mere change in the government in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections. “The vote was for a change in the system…a system that is stable…,” he said, pointing out India for long was burdened with a system that was not doing justice to the “ability of the country”.

To illustrate the change, Modi referred to the themes of HTLS. He said in 2015 the theme was Towards a Brighter India. “And today we are talking about the irreversible rise of India (the summit’s theme this year),” he said.

The two years had changed the people’s mindset and they had more faith in themselves and the country.

“The positive attitude in country has never appeared before,” he said, listing the welfare initiatives launched by his government.

Modi quoted the Gita and the Buddha, exhorting people to be “your own light” as he talked about a corruption-free and development-friendly ecosystem that his government is trying to foster.

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