Will have to listen to youth, believe in their power to create India of future: Amit Shah

PTI, Dec 16, 2023, 7:30 PM IST

Source: PTI / File

Anand: For India to become developed, one will have to listen to the youth, understand their choice, give an action plan to their aspirations, and believe in their power, Union Home Minister Amit Shah said on Saturday.

Addressing the 66th convocation of Sardar Patel University at Anand in Gujarat, Shah said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi came up with several schemes with the understanding that only the youth can create an India of the future.

Recalling India’s first deputy PM and home minister Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, Shah said that abrogation of Article 370, which bestowed a special status on the erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir, was a tribute to him, and the previous Congress governments denied the kind of respect that a personality like him deserved.

“If you want a developed India to come to fruition, you will have to listen to the voice of the youth, understand their choice, give an action plan to their aspirations, and believe in the power of the youth,” Shah said in his address.

“The policy of the Narendra Modi government is to listen to the voice of the youth, understand their choice, give a platform to their aspirations, and believe in their power. Narendrabhai has come up with several schemes with an understanding that only the youth of India can create the India of future,” he said.

Shah said it was only after he entered national politics in 2012 and toured different parts of the country that he realised that had Sardar Patel not been there, the country would not have existed (as it is now). “Without him, the map of the country was not possible,” he said.

“Students might be knowing about the problems of Kashmir and Hyderabad, but if Jodhpur, Junagadh, Hyderabad and Lakshadweep are today parts of India, then it is because of Sardar Patel,” he said.

Shah said that when he studied historical documents after Modi decided to abrogate Article 370, he realised that Sardar Patel accepted the Article giving special status to Jammu and Kashmir “with great sadness”.

“Narendra Modi abrogated Article 370 to fulfil the imagination of Sardar Saheb… It is a matter of sadness that the kind of respect Sardar Patel’s works deserved was not given even several years after independence. Until the Congress government ended, he did not even get Bharat Ratna. Hurdles were created in every process of giving him respect,” Shah said.

When Modi became PM, he established the world’s tallest statue of Sardar Patel at Kevadia, which has emerged as a major tourist attraction, he said.

The 182-metre-tall Statue of Unity, dedicated to Sardar Patel, was inaugurated at Kavadia by PM Modi on October 31, 2018.

Shah advised students to set big targets and not be scared of failure, stressing that even the hardest target will be fulfilled thanks to the kind of conditions being created in the country. “When setting a target, you must learn that to know the limit of possibility you will have to target the impossible. Never target small,” he said.

“Do not get disappointed with immediate failure. Every success is achieved from failure. Nobody can achieve anything without facing failure,” he added.

He said that the new National Education Policy is an amalgamation of Sardar Patel’s nationalist education, Mahatma Gandhi’s emphasis on education in the mother tongue, and Babasaheb Bhimrao Ambedkar’s empowering education, with a holistic approach.