You are IITians, I am tea-seller: Narendra Modi

Dedicating the campus of Indian Institute of Technology-Gandhinagar (IITGn) in Palaj village to the nation, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said students of IITs should not to forget the sacrfices of the poor who had made it possible for them to become technocrats.

"You are IITians. If you remove the two `I's from that word, I too was a 'Tea-n'," Modi said. "I was a tea-seller. But 16 years ago, on this same day, I was appointed chief minister of Gujarat which had been shaken by a powerful earthquake." Later, asking students to focus on innovation, Modi said, Indians have to focus on innovation if they want to change the future of India.

"Our country is yet to tap the natural talent of its people," he said. "India is a treasurehouse of techonological skill. Yet Google, Facebook and YouTube came up somewhere else. I want youths to take to innovation so that they can change the future of India and that of the world."

"You are not here (at IIT) just because you are intelligent or your parents are prosperous. You are here because some very poor people gave up their rights for the institute," Modi said.The Prime Minister explained that many primary schools or primary health centres could have been built on the land.

"But we opted for an IIT so that the country could have a bright future," he said. "You must not forget the sacrifices of the poor."

The PM also felicitated members of the rural community for their contribution to di gital literacy.He asked students to transform India by 2022 in such a way that the country is free of casteism, poverty and nepotism. The 75th anniversary of India's freedom falls in 2022.

Speaking on the occasion, Union minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said that payment of subsidy for gas and other things had been interlinked with Jan Dhan accounts, Aadhaar and mobile phones. "This has helped the government save Rs 58,000 crore," Prasad said. He further said that former PM Rajiv Gandhi had said that if the government gives one rupee, only15 paise reaches the citizen.

"But if the Modi government allocates Rs 1,000 then the entire amount reaches to commonman's bank account," Prasad said. Prasad is union minister for law and justice.

Source: The Times of India