Bhavnagar: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday said that India is moving forward with the spirit of 'Vishwabandhu' and its biggest enemy is "dependence". PM Modi's remarks came amid growing concerns after US President Donald Trump announced a hike in the application fee for H-1B visa and imposed 50 per cent tariffs on Indian products.
"Today, India is moving forward with the spirit of 'Vishwabandhu'. We have no major enemy in the world. Our biggest enemy is our dependence on other countries. This is our biggest enemy, and together we must defeat this enemy of India, the enemy of dependence. We must always reiterate this. The greater the foreign dependence, the greater the country's failure.," the Prime Minister said during his rally in Gujarat's Bhavnagar..
He underlined that for global peace and prosperity, India should become Atmanirbhar as it has the largest population in the world.
"For global peace, stability, and prosperity, the country with the world's largest population must become Atmanirbhar. If we remain dependent on others, our self-respect will be hurt. We cannot leave the future of 1.4 billion countrymen to others," PM Modi said.
"We cannot leave the resolution for the country's development to the dependence of others. We cannot put the future of future generations at stake... There is only one medicine for a hundred sorrows, and that is a self-reliant India," he added.
The Prime Minister on Saturday inaugurated and laid the foundation stone for multiple development projects worth over Rs 34,200 crore at the 'Samudra se Samriddhi' event in Gujarat's Bhavnagar.
As part of the maritime sector initiatives, PM Modi laid the foundation stone for projects worth over Rs 7,870 crore, including the Mumbai International Cruise Terminal at Indira Dock. The Prime Minister also inaugurated multiple projects worth over Rs 26,354 crore, jointly undertaken by the central and state governments, catering to various sectors in Gujarat.
Earlier on Friday (Local time), Trump on Friday signed a proclamation that will raise the fee for H1-B visas to a staggering USD 100,000 annually, the latest in the administration's efforts to crack down on immigration. White House staff secretary Will Scharf said the H1B non-immigrant visa programme is one of the "most abused visa" systems in the country's current immigration system, and it is supposed to allow highly skilled labourers, who work in fields that Americans don't work in, to come into the United States.
Among professionals who avail the H-1B visas, the majority are Indians.
