We have to start 'Make in India' right from Diwali gifts to our own Gods, Manohar Parrikar said. (Representational picture. Courtesy: AFP)
Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar today said that the eyes of Ganesha idols that are coming to India from China becoming narrower and narrower and pitched for using idols which are made in the country.
Mr Parrikar, who was addressing a seminar on 'Design and Make in India-Electronics,' was talking about the importance of government's flagship initiative.
The minister said he often gets statues of Gods, especially Ganesha, as gifts when he attends programmes.
"I found that nowadays the eyes are becoming smaller and smaller. One day I turned it back and found Made in China," he said leaving the audience at Vivekananda International Foundation in splits.
He said Indians have imagined the facial features of Goddess Saraswati and Ganesha among others based on the paintings of Raja Ravi Verma.
"Don't be surprised if it slowly changes. So we have to start 'Make in India' right from Diwali gifts to our own Gods. I think it is quite serious," he said, talking about the Chinese edge over India in manufacturing.
Talking about the population problem in India, Mr Parrikar said when he was a child his father used to jokingly say that a single atom bomb can solve it.
"The population then was only 35 crore and he considered it to be a problem," he said in a lighter vein.
India, he said, has a large number of youngsters because the country's population is huge.
Mr Parrikar also took a dig at Pakistan when a journalist told him that his recent comment on using terrorists to neutralise terrorists has spooked the neighbour.
"I will not go into what Pakistan feels about that but unko mirchi, woh bhi Andhra ki lagi hai," he said.