Modi In New York:
‘1.25 Billion People Are a Gift from God!’
by Dennis Speed and Lynne Speed
NEW YORK, Sept. 29—Did you ever conceive it possible, that a political leader could convince an accountant to advocate the idea, that the larger the number of people, the more wealth exists, even if there is less money?
If one needed proof that something truly profound had occurred on the afternoon of Sunday, Sept. 28, before the 19,000-plus people assembled in New York City’s Madison Square Garden to hear India’s newly elected Prime Minister Narenda Modi, one only had to listen to the remarks of lawyers, doctors, mathematicians, taxi drivers, and, yes, accountants, as they exited the Garden after Modi’s speech. One individual had been so struck by a formulation in the Prime Minister’s speech, that he held an extempore small lecture with four or five people who had heard the same formulation; the accountant, however, was so excited, that he had to make sure they had all actually understood what had just been said.
Modi said (in the words of the Hindi-English translator):
“India has capacity, and has competence. This capacity and competence is combined with the fact that India is the most youthful country in the world, with the oldest [cultural] heritage. 65% of the population is under 35.
“Youth with competence and capabilities can make their own future. We do not have to look back. There is no reason for pessimism, because I can say with conviction, that we will move forward very fast.
“We have a combination of things that no other nation has, and with this comes responsibility.... 1.2 billion people is a blessing from God. People are the face of God....”
Modi sounded the certain trumpet, unheard from almost any political figure for the past four decades, and the diametrical opposite of the London-based “anthropogenic global warming” population-reduction lobby, that people, and the creativity of the human mind, are the source of true wealth. The accountant in question was amazed at his own enthusiasm. “I used to think,” he said, as though a great deal of time had passed between his new idea of Sunday afternoon, and his old ideas of Sunday morning,” that if you had 100 rupees, and only two children, you were better off. But Modi is saying that the more children there are, the more wealthy India is. I never thought of that!”
‘A Declaration of Optimism’
Lyndon LaRouche, in discussion with members of LaRouche PAC National Policy Committee less than 24 hours later, responded to Modi’s “declaration of optimism”:
“There’s the important factor of a new person on the international scale—Narenda Modi. This man requires special treatment, because his role, in terms of his part in history—the history of India, but also the history of the region in general—is unique; and if you saw even fractions of what his reception has been, you would say, this is one of the most remarkable individuals in modern political history.
“He won all kinds of praise, applause, from the people—and it was all very, very, serious, very enthusiastic. But you look back a little bit earlier, to his earlier moments in his recent history, and he was like this. He was a creature made for a time to lead. And there are others in that same category, which he is related to. There are people in Russia who may be coming up fast. China, for example. We have great leaders in China. We have also, in some of the other BRICS nations, we have great leaders who are emerging there.
“So, therefore, he’s a very special kind of person, because what he does is, he takes us, say, us dumb Americans, or what you want to say, he takes us—and I’ve had a lot of experience with dumb Americans in India, over many times before—he represents something absolutely unique. And I think his predecessors would agree to that qualification. Therefore, we have to really understand what this man Modi has meant to us, because of what his role is now. And this is one of the great achievements.”
As to what LaRouche meant by “what Modi has meant to us,” one had only to contrast what Modi had to say, to the British Commonwealth’s errand-boy, President Barack Obama, and his various ukases uttered, without the authority of the U.S. Constitution (or the United Nations Charter, for that matter), on three separate occasions on the opening of the UN last week—at the United Nations summit on “climate change,” at the UN General Assembly, and at the UN emergency meeting on the Ebola crisis in West Africa. Even the Ebola crisis, as with the other two, could only be addressed by Obama from the standpoint of a “national security threat.” Never did the hapless Obama even dream to address the world from the standpoint of a creative future.
Knowing the U.S. President could not be counted on to respond on behalf of the American people to an authentic world leader with actual ideas, LaRouche PAC forces were there to do the job, distributing over 4,000 statements, including “We Need a New, Inclusive International Security Architecture” by Helga Zepp-LaRouche, founder of the Schiller Institute, and a statement by former U.S. Senate candidate Kesha Rogers, “Message of Congratulations to the People of India.” LaRouche organizers did not merely “cheerlead” for Modi or India, but pointed out that Americans, including Americans of Indian extraction, would help India fastest by removing Obama from the Presidency through impeachment.
As reported by organizer Daniel Burke: “We had made a determination ... to take the opportunity to challenge each person with LaRouche’s warning against impending dictatorship. This provoked a significant anti-Obama response, with only perhaps 20% of the attendees showing any support for Obama.... We found a tremendous awareness and anger at the Saudi role in financing terror from 9/11, to the Mumbai Massacre, to ISIS, and a recognition of Obama’s treason in partnering with the Saudis and funding “good terrorists against bad” (which practice Modi had attacked the day before).
People Are the Source of Wealth
There was no hint in Modi’s Madison Square Garden speech of the dead-end, fearful and delusional “view of reality” afflicting the hedge-fund riddled, debt-strapped zombie economies of America and Europe, and their “failed state’s” puppet-leaders. Consequently, the tens of thousands of people in attendance were unlike the usual desperate crowds filling the Garden with clouds of marijuana smoke at rock concerts, or obscenities at sports events. Modi’s confidence in them, and in the India he was offering, inspired the predominantly Indian-American crowd, prior to his appearance, to enthusiastically chanting “USA! USA!” just as loudly as they shouted “Jai Hind India (Long Live India!)” and other patriotic slogans from the pre-1947 pro-independence days.
The sense was that all things, even the most controversial, were discussable. Modi is, to the best recollection, the first prime minister in the history of India to praise, in a public speech, the role of the Sikhs, and the Sikh gurus, in the long fight for Indian independence. This was a particularly electrifying moment for the audience. Modi was even able to remark that the Indian people were not subjugated merely by the British, but had been “slaves for a thousand or twelve hundred years”—but this was said with no suppressed anger, “with malice toward none.” why be angry when your country of former slaves in now orbiting Mars?
Here are Modi’s remarks with regard to the successful Mangalyaan spacecraft’s Mars orbiter mission:
“In Ahmedabad, If you have to go on an auto rickshaw for one kilometer, you have to spend 10 rupees. But look at the uniqueness of [what we have accomplished]—650 million kilometers of journey to Mars—that’s what we have done! And it was all an indigenous effort. The parts were manufactured in small factories, and they were used to send [something] to Mars. In Ahmedabad you must spend 10 rupees to travel one kilometer, but we only spent 7 rupees per kilometer to go to Mars! If this is not talent, what is? Not only that: India is the first country in the world to succeed in its first attempt.”
Modi pointed out that he was speaking at that moment in America,
“but we are also talking to America on Mars. America reached it on the 22nd, and we reached it on the 24th. And not only that. The budget for making a Hollywood movie—on that budget, we reached Mars. A country that has that talent, a country that has that potential, that country can cross many heights of success. And in order to cross those heights, we have taken on ourselves a responsibility for skill development. Our youth have the talent. And if they have the opportunity to work, then they have the strength to raise a modern India.
“And for this we have emphasized our skill development.... After the new government was formed, we set up a new ministry for skills development, and we are putting all strength into it.”
Again, Modi identified the essential principle: People are the source of wealth. He contended that even by the year 2020, much of the world, demographically, will be too old to work. Then, and subsequently, he said, “India will become the workforce of the world.” But India’s is not the workplace of the past. The Mars and near-Solar System orientation in India, when combined with the Chinese emphasis on mining the Moon for helium-3, along with similar aspirations by Russia, is the basis for a whole new economic platform.
An Obama-less United States would be a morally qualified partner in this effort as well. Truly, India is advancing, because its leadership is attempting to inspire its population to form a new public movement based on growth and development. This is a nation that can plant its feet firmly in the 21st Century, because its head is in the stars.
Perhaps Modi’s lesson in statecraft will inspire certain immigrant Americans to re-plant the American system in America, starting with Madison Square Garden, Sept. 28, 2014.
