CHENNAI: 'The Chinese Model: Can India Catch Up?' was the question posed to Subramanian Swamy at the 10th edition of India's foremost education conclave ThinkEdu. Swamy's answer was rather simple. "I don't want to catch up with them I want to overtake them," he said.
Swamy underlined that "before the Ching dynasty, for more than 2,000 years, China was under the cultural influence of India. In China, it is dictatorship and I don't want to follow it."
"We have to really decide to defeat China in a war. If that happens, the whole world will support us. We alone have the potential and with the human spirit of our soldiers, we have to defeat them once. It is part of nation building that we have win a war against them," he went on to add.
Swamy also shared his biggest grouses against the present government -- them not freeing up temples from state control and avoiding taking on the Chinese for seizing Indian territory. "Is he (Modi) fighting the Chinese? He is just saying that they have not come inside our territory when they have taken up 4,000 sq km," he said.
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Swamy and his host Kaveree Bamzai took the conversation beyond China, talking about a multitude of issues. He said, "I am called a rebel in the BJP. When you oppose something, argue it. When you lose, you admit. That is the old Hindu system of shastra. Adi Shankara has perfected it."
He added that it is not necessary to always toe the party line and one has to stand up for their ideologies.
He stated that he is a rebel when it comes to the Ukraine issue as well. Ukraine, Swamy said, is an unarmed nation by traditional standards with functioning democracy and freedom of speech.
"It has been invaded by a superpower with veto with heavy tanks. The world should oppose it. There is nothing to equivocate. When the BRICS meeting (which India and Russia are part of) took place in Delhi, they passed a resolution that if anyone uses arms to resolve conflict, it is criminal act. The whole country should rise in protest that we are neutral on the issue," he said.
Swamy also commented on issues like Ram Setu, the takeover of temples by the state and said issues he has been taking up are moving slowly but he is succeeding.
"In the Ram Mandir issue, I brought in the new idea that it was not a property dispute but a matter of faith. The Preamble of the Constitution and even some sections of the IPC say that where there is faith, the court can't do anything," he said. He complimented the Muslim community for accepting the court order in the dispute. He also alleged that Modi took credit for Ram Mandir without having done anything.
ThinkEdu 2022 is the grand tenth edition of what has consistently been India's biggest education conclave for a decade now. Stalwarts of India's academic, economic and political ecosystems are sharing their ideas, ideologies and reflections on the past, present and future of India's education system at the event. Over the last nine years, the conclave has seen stalwarts such as former Presidents, Dr APJ Abdul Kalam and Dr Pranab Mukherjee, MPs Jairam Ramesh, Smriti Irani, former CM of Jammu and Kashmir Farooq Abdullah, NITI Aayog's CEO, Amitabh Kant, and spiritual guide Sadhguru.