Those criticising Centre's USD 5-trillion economy target are professional pessimists: PM

Prime Minister Narendra Modi Saturday dismissed as "professional pessimists" the critics of the Centre's target to achieve a USD 5-trillion economy within the next five years and asserted that the "new India" is on the threshold of sprinting forward.

He was addressing a gathering in his Lok Sabha constituency, after launching the BJP's membership drive on the occasion of the 118th birth anniversary of party ideologue Syama Prasad Mookerjee.

"I am fully confident that as a nation, with our collective efforts, in the next five years we will definitely reach the destination of USD 5-trillion economy. But, some people are questioning the need for this (goal) and asking why all these are being done.

"These are people we can call 'pesheywar nirashawadi' (professional pessimists). These professional pessimists are totally different from common people. If you approach a common man with a problem, he will offer you a solution. But if you go to these people with a solution, they will convert it into a problem," he said a day after presentation of the Union budget 2019-20.

"It is important to know about the USD 5-trillion economy because some people are casting doubts over the competency of Indians, saying achieving the target is very difficult," he said in his hour-long speech.

Referring to the budgetary provisions, Modi said a "new India" was on the threshold of sprinting forward and recited a few couplets in Hindi which means the challenges before one also offer immense opportunities to surmount them and everyone's contribution in the development the country will be a true gift for mother India.

The prime minister also said, "The rich and the poor are the arms of the new India. This is the call of a transforming country. The nation has moved ahead in the past too, but now new India is ready to sprint."
"People have the power to turn the impossible into possible. Try to remember, there was a time when the country used to reel under the problem of foodgrains. The country had to import foodgrains. But, at that time (Lal Bahadur) Shastriji gave the clarion call of Jai Jawan, Jai Kisan, and the farmers filled the storehouses of the country with foodgrains."
Explaining the dissimilarity between the BJP and other parties, he said, "We said saath aaye, desh banaaye (come together and build the nation). We never said come together and form government."
The prime minister also said, "In our minds poverty seems to have become a virtue."