Prime Minister Narendra Modi has urged Indians to reconsider their spending habits despite the country’s robust 7.8 percent economic growth. In a video message delivered in Hindi on Tuesday, he advised citizens to forgo leisure travel abroad, hold weddings locally instead of overseas, and avoid unnecessary gold purchases.
Modi emphasized that these measures are part of a broader vision to achieve a “developed India” by the nation’s centenary in 2047. This call for austerity is not unprecedented; he made a similar appeal in May amid geopolitical tensions in the Strait of Hormuz, encouraging restraint on fuel consumption, air travel, and gold acquisition.
While the current economic backdrop is more positive compared to earlier uncertainties, Modi’s message remains consistent: prioritize domestic products, stay within the country, and postpone gold buying. He also criticized unnamed detractors spreading negativity, referring to their rhetoric as “jhooth ki goonj” or an echo of lies, a phrase widely interpreted as targeting Congress leader Rahul Gandhi’s “Chhatron Ki Goonj” student campaign.
The remarks were made in Bishkek during the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation summit, where Modi joined other world leaders including Xi Jinping, Vladimir Putin, and Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif. This setting underscored that some international engagements are essential and unavoidable despite the call to limit foreign travel.
