Modi takes Sydney by storm

Sydney: Prime Minister Narendra Modi has begun his much-awaited Sydney visit with a booming speech at the Allphones Arena on Monday. The sound of Modi-Modi reverberated inside the Olympic park as soon as he took the centre stage.

“These incredible scenes and this massive reception in Sydney will galvanise India. I dedicate this honour, this welcome to 125 crore Indians. I am fortunate that I am the first Indian PM who was born in independent India…so I feel greater responsibility,” said Modi as he started addressing the huge crowd of more than 16,000.

“Not everyone has the good fortune of dying for the country, but we can all live for Mother India. You can take off from India at night and reach Australia the next morning. But it took the Indian PM 28 years to reach Australia. I promise you will never need to wait that long again,” said Modi promising to bolster ties with the Indians living in Australia.

Emphasising the importance of cricket in the two countries, Modi said both India and Australia can’t live without cricket.

A large number of Indians emigrate to Australia for jobs and highlighting this point Modi said,” We are blessed, world’s requirement for workforce can be met by Indians. But skill development is equally important.”  Adding that it may take 5 or 10 years, “but skill development should be a constant concern.”

Modi spoke on range of issues from Jan Dhan Yojana to the Swacch Bharat Abhiyan. Every word he spoke garnered cheers and appreciation from the jubilant crowd.

After 10 years of Congress at the Centre, BJP has taken the innitiative to open its market for the foreign investors. Modi said, “We are changing the laws to make investment easier in India” adding, “Earlier governments wanted to make laws, I want to abolish them. A web of laws have been created which should be removed.”

Modi’s promises from his Madison sqaure garden speech were reiterated to the Indian diaspora in Australia, “Those NRIs who have a PIO card (Persons of Indian origin) will get a lifetime Indian Visa. PIO and OCI (Overseas citizenship of India) will be merged.”

He finished his speech with chants of “Bharat Mata ki Jay.”