It seemed like a reincarnation for Bangalore. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Saturday billed it as a global brand and said people across the world know more of Bangalore than India.
Heaping praise on public-private partnership, the PM hit out at those trying to bring in a divide between urban and rural areas - an indirect reference to former Prime Minister H D Deve Gowda and the JD(S).
“Along with Bangalore's development, we must also work for Karnataka's development. I do not see any contradiction between the two. Some try to divide our people by pitting one against another in the development debate. This is wrong.“
He was speaking after laying the foundation stone for a 10-lane mixed corridor to Electronics City and, later, at a ceremony for the Bangalore Metro Rail project.
He said India cannot develop if only a few benefit from that process.
“We want both our urban and rural areas to develop. We want to build an India in which scientists and engineers, farmers and workers, can all find the space to express their creativity and enterprise. It is only through such inclusive growth process that we can build a prosperous, equitable and humane nation.“
Bangalore should retain its global image as a city of enormous creativity and individual enterprise. At the same time, Bangalore should retain its historical reputation as a city of gentle and humane people.
-Times of India
:D