Amid 'Modi, Modi' chants, PM gives 'IN+FRA' mantra in Paris

Amid resounding welcome at UNESCO Headquarters in Paris, Prime Minister Narendra Modi gave a new mantra for bilateral ties between India and France. “Today in the 21st century we talk of INFRA. I would like to say that for me it is IN+FRA, which means the alliance between India and France,” PM Modi said. Sounding confident on the pace of development, PM Modi said that, “India will achieve most of the climate change goals set for 2030, in the next year and a half.”

Modi on Friday asserted that the resounding mandate of 2019 Lok Sabha polls was not just for a government, but for building a 'New India' that focuses on ease of doing business while ensuring ease of living. Addressing Indian community at the UNESCO headquarters here after inaugurating a memorial in honour of the victims of two Air India crashes in France in the 1950s and 1960s, Prime Minister Modi said in 'new India' action is being taken against corruption, nepotism, loot of people's money, terrorism.

In an apparent reference to the revocation of special status to Jammu and Kashmir, he said, "There is no scope for temporary in India. You would have seen that a country of 1.25 billion people, the land of Mahatma Gandhi, Gautam Buddha, Ram, Krishna, took 70 years to remove what was temporary."

Asserting that people gave resounding mandate to the BJP government for building 'New India', Modi, who is in France on the first leg of his three-nation tour, said that India is moving fast on the path of development.

On triple talaq he said, "We did away with practice of triple talaq; injustice cannot be done to Muslim women in new India."

He said India will achieve most of the climate change goals set for 2030, in the next year and a half.

Prime Minister Modi said India will be free of tuberculosis in 2025.

Prior to the address, PM Modi held talks with his French counterpart Edouard Charles Philippe and discussed issues of bilateral and mutual interests to further boost the comprehensive strategic partnership. During the breakfast meeting, the two leaders covered the full range of India-French ties. Modi, who is in France on the first leg of his three-nation tour, on Thursday held one-on-one talks with French President Emmanuel Macron at Chateau de Chantilly during which the two leaders reviewed the entire gamut of the dynamic and multi-faceted bilateral relationship.  

(With agency inputs)