Harvard vs hard work: PM snubs note ban critics

ho jayega, koi keh raha tha 4 per cent GDP kum ho jayega. Bhaiyon-behno, desh ne dekh liya... Harvard walon ki soch kya hoti hai... hard work walon ki soch kya hoti hai... Harvard aage bada ya hard work... desh ke kisano ne dikha diya hai, desh ke majdooron ne dikha diya hai, desh ke imandaron ne dikha diya hai... Harvard se jyada dum hota hai hard work mein,” Modi said.

(Great intellectuals from Harvard, Oxford... who served in high positions of the country’s economic structure for 30-40 years... some said the GDP will fall by 2 per cent, others said by 4 per cent... But the country is witness... what is the thinking of those from Harvard, and those who work hard... Did Harvard go forward or hard work? The farmers, the workers, the honest of the country have shown them... hard work is stronger than Harvard.)

“You must have heard the Opposition say that economic development has been ruined... GDP is not growing, the country is not making progress. At 8 pm on November 8, when I said, my beloved countrymen, the entire country woke up... 500 and 1,000 notes were stopped. Then they said, Modi, we can’t understand... just when the country was surging ahead, ready to make the economic leap, why did you ban notes to cripple the country. Then they said jobs had been lost, farmers ruined, industries shut and the country was lagging behind..” he said.

Modi said the voters of Uttar Pradesh have already ensured the BJP’S victory in the first five phases and they will now give votes as “gift and bonus” in the remaining two rounds. “I request the voters of the state to give the remaining two phases as bonus to the party... like the chillies and coriander leaves which the vegetable-seller gives as bonus,” he said.

He attacked UP Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav for saying “kaam bol raha hai” (work is doing the talking). He said the Chief Minister should say “kaarname bol rahe hain” (antics are doing the talking). Saying he had done some research, Modi claimed that the official website of the Uttar Pradesh government had a page which stated that Uttar Pradesh resembled subsaharan Africa: ‘Unhone kaha hai ki UP ki halaat Africa mein Sahara ke registan jaisi hai.”