Pune:
Two days after he kicked up a storm with a controversial interview, Gujarat Chief Minister
Narendra Modi looked none the worse for wear as he talked to students at Pune's Fergusson College about the need to ramp up education in the country towards nation-building.
The speech, to a packed hall and pin-drop silence except when Mr Modi would throw in an aside, was explicit in its criticism of the Congress-led UPA's education policy and initiatives as the BJP's election campaign chief made all but a vote appeal to a young electorate.
(Read highlights of the speech)There was a sense of despondency in the country, he said, that needed to be overcome with a change led by the youth. He compared the government's efforts in sports and education unfavourably to China and even South Korea, saying "the tiny South Korea made a mark in sports, while we made a mess of the Commonwealth Games."
Education, Mr Modi said, needed to build men and not money-machines. "The roadmap of China-education needs to be analysed. China prioritised education in their budget. In India, we dream of seven percent of our budget for education, but are stuck at four percent," he said, adding the country needed "modernisation, not westernisation."
The Chief Minister also seized the opportunity to hit out at the Centre over its ambitious food security scheme that will roll out next month in 14 Congress-ruled states. "Government thinks passing food bill means food reaching the hungry," Mr Modi said.
(Read)It had the usual trimmings of a Modi speech. The joke about exceeding the time assigned to him, peppered with Marathi to draw the local populace and replete with examples from the Gujarat success story.
Wooing the young with their terms of reference, Mr Modi said before his Pune visit, he had asked for feedback on Facebook for what his speech today should focus on. 2,500 people had written in with suggestions, he said.
Mr Modi is in Pune for a day. After inaugurating a renovated ampitheatre at Fergusson College, he will also hold his first public meeting after taking over as the chief of the BJP's campaign committee.
Over the last two days, Mr Modi and his party, the BJP, have been called upon to defend his controversial analogy of a puppy while talking about the death of many people in the 2002 Gujarat riots in an interview to the news agency Reuters.
The BJP says the entire controversy as "despicable" and one "created where it does not exist".