World has benign view of India’s rise: Manmohan
By Manish Chand, IANSSaturday, April 17, 2010
ON BOARD AIR INDIA ONE - The world takes a “benign view” of India and is not worried about its rise, unlike the case of China, and India should take advantage of it, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said Saturday.
“The world takes a benign view of India. They want us to succeed,” Manmohan Singh told journalists on board his special aircraft Air India One while returning from an eight-day visit to the US and Brazil where he interacted with nearly 50 world leaders.
The prime minister said this when he was asked to share his overall impression of his meetings in Washington, where he attended the 47-nation Nuclear Security Summit, and in Brazil, where he participated in the India-Brazil-South Africa (IBSA) summit and Brazil-Russia-India-China (BRIC) summits.
“Unlike China’s rise, the rise of India does not cause any apprehensions,” Manmohan Singh said when asked whether there was a unique Indian approach compared to the Beijing consensus.
“We should take advantage of it. This benign mood cannot last,” the prime minister said.
Manmohan Singh, however, said that India must first tackle a host of domestic problems like poverty and underdevelopment.
“India’s problems are all at home. We should get our act together. We need to work to remove ignorance, poverty and disease,” he said.
