Next five years crucial to regain India’s global position: Modi

Ahmedabad, May 26 (IANS) Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday said that the next five years would be crucial for India to regain its global position.

He equated his first tenure as the Prime Minister (2014-2019), with the five years from 1942 to 1947 leading to Independence, which were key to laying the foundation for a strong India.

Making his first public address in Gujarat after his landslide victory, Modi said: "If we look at the five years leading to Independence from 1942 to 1947, they were very important to revive the idea of India and galvanise the people to fight the external forces."

"This is a similar opportunity to awaken the public consciousness and work hard to scale new heights for the country. We must work as one society with one purpose and in one direction to achieve this goal," he said in his speech outside the old BJP headquarters at JP Chowk, where he took his first steps in politics in the 1980s.

Addressing thousands of people, Modi said wherever he went for campaign during the 2014 and 2019 elections, the stories of Gujarat's development had already reached there.

Giving an example, he said: "I watched a social media interview of an elderly woman in Bengal where she kept on repeating Modi-Modi. But when asked who she will vote for, she said she will vote for the Communists.

"When she was asked why, since she wanted Gujarat like development, she said this is Bengal, we can't say all this publicly, you never know what happens to you."

Modi, along with BJP President Amit Shah, arrived here on a two-day thanksgiving visit to Gujarat, which gave the party all the 26 Lok Sabha once again. Modi later took his nonagenarian mother Hiraba's blessings at Raisin near state capital Gandhinagar. He would spend the night at the Raj Bhawan before returning to Delhi on Monday.