Prime Minister Narendra Modi returned to his analogy about what fills a glass that seems half empty, as he returned to Delhi University’s Shri Ram College of Commerce on Saturday evening, 13 years after a speech at the same place became the launchpad for his projection as the BJP’s prime ministerial face.
“That was the time when the country was facing a lot of negativity. “I am someone who sees a path different from both of those paths. The line he was recalling was delivered in February 2013, when he was chief minister of Gujarat.
“I gave the example of a glass of water, and spoke of three perspectives on it,” Modi recalled at the SRCC centenary gathering. At that time, I said I see the glass as full, with half water and half air. Holding up a glass of water then, he had said optimists would call it half full and pessimists half empty. I have a third way of thinking, that this glass is full, half with water and half with air,” he had said.
He added that even as he is from a party, BJP, that was in the Opposition at that time – Congress-led UPA was in power – he had not used the stage for criticism. “There was negativity and struggle. He cited the latest quarterly growth data. “Just a few days back, the Q1 GDP numbers came out. This came at a time when there is a global crisis. “Those who wanted to push India into the ‘fragile five’ are not able to digest these numbers. He listed vehicle sales among the markers of the shift. “Construction, manufacturing, and industrial activity have increased. That means India is not just growing but moving fast as well. He would go on to mark another year as CM before taking the chair in Delhi.
Modi said the 2013 address was now being revisited widely: “The impact of that speech can be felt now as well. “The headlines were like ‘Army personnel killed at LoC’, ‘Inflation high at 10%’, and about corruption. On Saturday he returned with 12 years as prime minister behind him, in his third consecutive term since 2014. Next month he completes 25 years as head of government, as CM or PM. Earlier reporting noted: Let three numbers tell the story first: 12, 13, and 100. When Prime Minister Narendra Modi returns to Delhi University’s Shri Ram College of Commerce on Saturday evening for the institution’s centenary celebrations, it’ll mark 13 years since an address at the same college that was widely read as the launchpad for his projection as the BJP’s prime ministerial face. Earlier reporting noted: The last time was in February 2013, when Modi came to SRCC as the chief minister of Gujarat, weeks into his fourth term in Gandhinagar and yet to be named his party’s candidate for national office. He was in his 12th year as CM, having first taken office in October 2001. Earlier reporting noted: On Saturday, he returned to the same campus with 12 years as prime minister behind him, in his third consecutive term, having led the BJP to victories in 2014, 2019 and 2024.
“Whatever I said was with conviction, and I walked that path,” he said. “If you go to the internet and watch the news around 2013, see what the headlines were,” he said at SRCC on Saturday. He added, “Everywhere there was ‘policy paralysis’, and the world was counting us among the ‘fragile five’ (economies),” he said. There were those days, and then there’s the present time,” he said. And this clearly shows India’s strength,” Modi said.
