'Adversities can't stop our developed nation dream'

RAJKOT: In an indirect snipe at his detractors, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on Wednesday that despite the presence of divisive forces and the slavery mentality, India has the mettle for pathbreaking innovations that will help realize the goal of emerging as a developed nation by 2047.
Modi virtually addressed the closing ceremony of the 10-day Saurashtra Tamil Sangamam in the temple town of Somnath.
"We have to take the country forward, but on the way, there will be forces that will threaten to break us and people to mislead us. We also have the challenges of the era of slavery and the period of seven decades after that. But India has the courage to do something new even in the most difficult of circumstances," Modi said.
Modi said the shared history of Saurashtra and Tamil Nadu gives us an assurance of this conviction. "Such a confluence of cultures is the fulfillment of the dreams of lakhs of freedom fighters who sacrificed their lives and cherished the dream of 'Ek Bharat Shreshtha Bharat," he went on to say.
The state government organized the festival to provide an opportunity to the people of Saurashtra origin who migrated to Tamil Nadu centuries ago to reconnect to their roots. More than 3,000 people came to Somnath on a special train and visited Devaliya Park, Dwarka, Porbandar, and the Statue of Unity.
He emphasized that India is a country that celebrates its diversities which don't divide but only strengthen the peoples' bonding and harmony.
Modi that India has to move forward towards nation-building by taking together this shared cultural heritage.
"We are a people who celebrate diversity. We celebrate different languages and dialects, varied art forms, and knowledge. There is diversity everywhere from our faith to our spirituality. Such diversities do not divide us but strengthen our bonding and relationships. Because we know that when different streams meet, they merge and create a confluence," he said.
Talking about India's heritage, he said "The pride in our heritage will increase when we get to know ourselves by setting us free from the mentality of slavery."
The PM rued the fact that the ages-old connection between Gujarat and Tamil Nadu was "deliberately kept out of our knowledge.".
"The knowledge of people's escape from Saurashtra to Tamil Nadu during the era of foreign invasion remained limited to some historians. But even before that, there has been a deep relation between these two states since time immemorial," he said.
"Natives of Tamil Nadu people of Saurashtra with open hearts and provided them with all facilities to begin a new life. What can be a bigger example of Ek Bharat, Shresth Bharat'?" he added.
He described the event as the confluence of the commitment of patriotism of India's 'Iron Man' Sardar Patel and Subramania Bharati, the iconic Tamil poet.
He also invoked Tamil saint Thiruvalluvar and said that we should emphasize on "harmony, and not on cultural clash." "We don't have to seek distinction, we have to make emotional connections," he said.