The issue is, India has uranium. Earlier the government would make budgetary allocation for uranium exploration. What was the reason for Dr Manmohan Singh, as finance minister, to make it zero budgeting for uranium exploration?

What was the reason when he became PM to halt research into uranium? And what is the reason for him enter into a restrictive agreement with foreign nations for the same uranium? Now the question arises.

After the nuclear deal the whole world accepts India as a nuclear power.

I am saying the world is accepting you as a nuclear power not because of the deal but because Atal Bihari Vajpayee dared America and went ahead with the nuclear tests. If we had not done it, who would have accepted us as a nuclear power?

If Vajpayeeji had succumbed to American pressure we would have been left high and dry and not become a nuclear power. This happened when India's leadership showed steel. Not because of some deal.

You know that India has the world's largest population of youth. This could be a demographic bonus or a demographic time bomb, depending on how they are harnessed.

There was a time when it was believed that population was a problem, but the way the world's economic environment has since changed, India's population is considered an asset. The same advantage is with China also.

But if these young people don't get jobs, it could lead to major social unrest.

I don't accept this theory. The youth have talent -- they don't want a job, they want work. They want to develop their skills. China has begun work on some 80,000 skill development projects, whereas the Indian government has started only 600.

I told the PM at a meeting, 'What are we doing? By itself my state is running 2,000 skill development projects and I want to increase this number by the hundreds, have public-private partnerships.'

Our youth need value-addition, they are capable of doing it and they are doing it. They should be given an opportunity.

Similarly, if an opportunity is given, will you lead the nation?

I believe that the chief ministers of even the smallest Indian states are major instruments of powering the nation. And I, as a chief minister, am part of running the nation.

Will you deny that you have no ambition whatsoever to become the prime minister?

I have a mission, not ambition. I was not born to become something, I was born to do something.

I did not have a desire to become somebody when I was a child, I don't have it now, nor will I have it in the future.

I have a dream, to do something. I want to do something for the nation. I am part of the mission, not ambition.

Ambition doesn't inspire me, mission does.

What are the other things that drive Narendra Modi?

Only devotion to Bharat Mata. That is enough for me.

What are the challenges that face India today?

We have a 100 crore population, which presents us with an opportunity to make the 21st century ours, to unleash the energy in the common man and take the nation forward. This is a big opportunity, and we should grab it.

Image: Youth chill out at a coffee shop in Chandigarh. Photograph: Ajay Verma/Reuters.

Also see: In Uttar Pradesh, Mayawati's word is law | India Votes 2009

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