FREMONT: Dr. Subramanian Swamy (BJP Member of the Rajya Sabha) spoke on “Indo-US Relationship Under New Leaderships, Opportunities, And Risks” on Jan 16 at Bay Area Youth Vaishnav Parivar (BAYVP), Milpitas. This event was organized by Vichar Manthan, which is a platform for intellectual stimulation, where thoughts from ‘Hindu Dharma’ are churned together to influence lifestyles, morals and values. The event was attended by over 300 Bay Area residents from all walks of life.
The event started with small prayer by Pandit Krishna Pandey, Shiv Durga temple of Bay area. Dharmendra Sarkar, Volunteer, Vichar Manthan and Mani Kiran of HSS introduced the speaker, who needs no introduction.
Subramanian Swamy is an Indian politician and economist who serves as a member of the Rajya Sabha, the Upper House of the Indian Parliament. Born in Mylapore, Chennai on September 15, 1939, Dr.Swamy holds a Ph.D. in Economics from Harvard University, where he also taught for ten years, and has published famous joint papers on the Theory of Index Numbers with Nobel Laureate Paul A. Samuelson.
Dr Swamy is recognized internationally as an authority on the economy of China. His honesty is acknowledged widely by the fact that he has publicly challenged and fought against Prime Ministers, Chief Ministers, and other high officials by filing cases of corruption and fraud in courts of law. He has written on foreign affairs of India dealing largely with China, Pakistan and Israel. He is also a published author and President of Virat Hindustan Sangam.
Speaking on the occasion, Dr Swamy appreciated that Indians residing in US earned the highest per capita income.
Dr Swamy emphasized the richness of Indian civilization and said, “India is the only country considered by UNESCO as having unbroken continuing civilization out of the 46 civilizations in the world. Though there were attacks on India we did not surrender but fought back.
Look at the history books written by the British for you – they have separate chapters for each Moghul emperor, but there is only one page on Vijayanagara Empire. We should learn from history about how developed India was thousand years ago. People from all over the world came to India to learn, study and buy goods.
He spoke eloquently on how India was an economic power until 1700 and fell to the poverty stricken economy in 1947 under British Raj. He pointed out that India’s adopting Soviet model was a major blunder and that made us not grow more than 3% until the economic reforms made in 1991.
He welcomed strategic partnership with US in fighting Islamic terror. He rightly predicted Donald Trump’s victory in the US presidential race. Hillary Clinton, he said, was “compromised by Pakistan. Trump, on the other hand, is committed to fighting Islamic terror.”
Swamy said that Trump as US President will not hurt Indo-US relations at all. But the US must treat India as an equal partner, not a junior partner,” he said.
US moves forward because of innovations. Nearly 70 percent of the Indian population is below the age of 35. We are the youngest nation in the world. We have to partner with US to get the best innovative technology and by 2025 I foresee India will overtake China.
Calling upon NRIs to join in the process of transforming the country, he said, “Find an alternative for fuel and help your country, because 86 percent of our oil depends on Arab countries. We should think of how we can make India a great economic power. He added, “India should be transformed back to where we were – a prosperous, spiritual, scientifically advanced country. Our rishis (sages) described the movement of sun and stars.”
During interaction with the audience, he was asked questions related to issues such as Kashmir conflict, Demonetization, National Herald case, recent Bengal violence and Ram Mandir. The event concluded with aarti performed by Dr Swamy and other members of Vichar Manthan.
Vidya Sethuraman
India Post News Service
