PM Modi with UP CM Yogi Adityanath and BJP Working President JP Nadda inaugurate a statue of former PM Lal Ba... Read More

VARANASI: A day after the Union Budget, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday attacked his critics who have questioned his government’s plans to turn the country into a $5-trillion economy by 2024 by terming them ‘professional pessimists’.

“I am fully confident that as a nation, with our collective efforts, we will become a $5-trillion economy in the next five years. But some people are questioning the need for this. These are the people whom we can call ‘peshevar nirashawadi’ (professional pessimists),” Modi said after launching BJP’s membership drive on the 118th birth anniversary of party ideologue Shyama Prasad Mukherjee .

“These professional pessimists are totally different from common people. If you approach a common man with a problem, he will offer you a solution. But if you go to these people with a solution, they will convert it into a problem,” he added.

The PM said making India a $5-trillion economy was not just the government’s aim, but that of every Indian. “Nobody can stop us from achieving this target if every family, tehsil and district move in the right direction with determination. The rich and the poor are the two arms of India. This is the call of a country in transformation. The nation moved ahead in the past too, but now ‘new India’ is ready to sprint.”

Urging detractors to think how to make achieving the target possible rather than terming it impossible, Modi referred to the popular saying, “the size of the pie matters”, to explain how a bigger economy with high per capita income brings prosperity to all.

“History of developed countries proves how jump in per capita income changed their status from developing to developed nation. India can no longer wait to join the club of developed nations, especially at a time when its population is dominated by youth,” he said.

Higher per capita income means more purchasing capacity, demand, production, employment generation and savings, he said and exhorted people to change the mindset of ‘less income, less expenses’ as it has made poverty a virtue.



In Video: PM Narendra Modi slams 'professional pessimists' who criticized $5 trillion economy goal