Shashi Tharoor showered praise on Prime Minister Narendra Modi after attending the Ramnath Goenka Lecture on Monday evening — highlighting various excerpts from his address. The Congress MP dubbed it a “cultural call to action” and insisted that was “glad to have been in the audience”. Modi spoke at length about the colonial mindset that has besieged India over the past 200 years and touched upon various aspects of the national ‘growth story’ during the event.
“A significant part of the speech was dedicated to overturning Macaulay’s 200-year legacy of ‘slave mentality’. PM Modi appealed for a 10-year national mission to restore pride in India’s heritage, languages, and knowledge systems. I wish he had also acknowledged how Ramnath Goenka had used English to raise a voice for Indian nationalism! On the whole, the PM’s address served as both an economic outlook and a cultural call to action, urging the nation to be restless for progress. Glad to have been in the audience despite battling a bad cold and cough!” Tharoor wrote on X.
Modi had stressed the need to take pride in domestic developments and Indian culture rather than trying to adapt Western norms during his address. He cited Thomas Macaulay — noting that the British historian had distorted the learning system nearly 200 years ago. The Prime Minister insisted that his fight was not against the English language as he highlighted the various policies enshrined within the newly formed National Education Policy.
“Which country criticises its own languages? Japan, China, Korea, they adopted many global ideas but never compromised on language. This is why our National Education Policy emphasises learning in local languages. We do not oppose English — we support Indian languages. Macaulay’s crime in 1835 will complete 200 years in 2035, ten years from now. So today, through this platform, I urge the nation: Let the next 10 years be our resolve to free ourselves from this colonial mindset. These ten years are crucial,” Modi said.
