ADDRESS
TO THE NATION BY SHRI K. R. NARAYANAN, PRESIDENT OF INDIA, ON THE OCCASION
OF OUR INDEPENDENCE DAY
AUGUST 15, 1997
Redeeming
the Pledge: New Oppurtunities and New Challenges Fellow citizens, Freedom
Fighters, Sisters and Brothers, Honoured Guests from abroad, and Friends,
This midnight hour, thronged with memories of the past, and throbbing
with significance for the future, is a golden moment in the history of
India and the world. Fifty years ago, at this very moment, a new age of
freedom dawned for India, and as Jawaharlal Nehru put it, "the soul of
a nation, long suppressed, found utterance". It was also the beginning
of the end of colonialism in the world. On the fiftieth anniversary of
this historic event, it is my privilege to extend to all Indians throughout
the length and breadth of the motherland, and to all Indian nationals
living abroad, my heartiest greetings and felicitations.
I also send my
greetings to the brave soldiers of our armed forces, who stand guard over
the remote frontiers of our land. At this moment of the midnight, let
us bow our heads to Bharat Mata, whose children we are, and take a vow
to serve her, and the people of India regardless of caste, class or creed,
religion, language or region. On this solemn occasion, we remember the
countless men and women - the peasants, workers and the youth of India
- who suffered untold hardships and sacrificed their careers, and even
their lives, for the freedom and independence of the nation. We pay our
homage to Mahatma Gandhi, the Father of the Nation, to Netaji Subhas Chandra
Bose and the Indian National Army; and the great men like Jawaharlal Nehru,
Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, Rajendra Prasad, Maulana Abul Kalam Azad and
a galaxy of others.
We also remember and pay our tribute to the founding
fathers of our Constitution, and the Chairman of its Drafting Committee,
Baba Saheb Dr. B.R. Ambedkar, who championed the cause of the down-trodden
and the most exploited classes of people in our society, and who reminded
us in the Constituent Assembly that "social and economic democracy are
the tissue and the fibre of political democracy". At this moment we cannot
forget the tragedy and the trauma of Partition, that cast a shadow on
the first Independence celebrations, but as Nehru said on the occasion
". . . . the past is over and it is the future that beckons to us now".
That future seems to have now arrived, with India playing its part in
co-operation systems in South Asia, Asia and the world. It is pertinent
to reflect and ask on this occasion, what we have achieved as a nation
during the half century of our independence, and what have been our short-comings
and failures.
I have no hesitation in telling you, my fellow citizens,
that our achievements have been impressive, in spite of many failures.
First and foremost, we have succeeded in maintaining the unity of the
nation, and kept this vast country together. It is for the first time
in our history, that we have been able to put an economic content into
the dream of unity that has haunted the mind of India over the ages, and
establish economic ties of inter-dependence between the diverse parts
of the country. It is by clinging to our cultural values and our traditions
of tolerance, to our composite culture and secularism, and to our economic
and social development programmes, that we can maintain our unity. It
is from this domestic base that our armed forces defended with valour
the territorial integrity of the country during the last five decades.
The greatest achievement of India since independence, has been the establishment
of a democratic system of government and politics.
Indian democracy is
the product of a complexity of factors. Several strands of thought and
experience have gone into it: Western liberal and British parliamentary
ideas, Socialist concepts, the deeply rooted traditions of India, both
Hindu and Buddhist, and the ideas and methods propagated by Mahatma Gandhi,
like the panchayat system and democratic decentralisation. In the inter-play
and inter-penetration of these ideas and methods, a distinctly Indian
variety of democracy has been in the making, that is not only important
to India, but relevant to the new world of pluralism that is emerging.
Besides, the revolutionary implications of universal adult suffrage that
we adopted are unfolding themselves today. The lower and poorer sections
of society and the women are being drawn into the political system as
active players.
The time is overdue for meeting the aspirations of these
sections of society, particularly the women, for their economic and political
empowerment. Fellow citizens, we have every reason to be proud of our
democracy. But we will have to strain our every nerve to purify our political,
administrative and electoral processes, and to remove the aberrations
and distortions that have come into the functioning of our democracy.
It is in the area of economic, technological and social development that
India, during the last fifty years, has had to face formidable challenges.
Here, though we have registered significant successes, the fact of the
matter is that we have not been able to abolish poverty, ignorance and
disease from among our people. The massive programmes that we have launched
in these fields have not yielded the desired fruits. But we ought not
to underestimate our achievements. India is today a considerable industrial
and technological power of the world, and promises to be an economic giant
of the twenty first century.
The economic reforms that we launched six
years ago with the liberalization and opening up of our economy have reached
a decisive stage. The country has moved to a high trajectory of growth
with a growth rate of 7 to 8 percent of GNP envisaged for the next five
years. This is a record-breaking achievement. We have accomplished this
by standing on the shoulders of our basic policies of self-reliance and
social justice. In this context I would single out two broad parameters of progress we have made. One is the revolution in the production of foodgrains
making the country self-sufficient in food, and the other, is the rise
in the average expectation of life of an Indian, which, more than doubled
since Independence. Notwithstanding all these we have yet to provide for
our people safe drinking water, basic health facilities, electricity supply
and other basic necessities of daily life. But, obviously, these rates
of progress are not enough for us to take pride in, or to be complacent
about. Other countries have gone far ahead of us. We have to move faster,
without upsetting the delicate and complicated balance of our society.
We have to put special emphasis on the development of infrastructure and
on investment. But we have also to devote more serious attention to the
question of equity and social justice, thus releasing the energies of
nearly 75 percent of our population for productive purposes. We have to
give the youth of the country new opportunities, new hopes and new challenges.
All these require hard work, discipline and unity of purpose, and faith
in the future of the country.
While I appeal to all the people of India,
to demonstrate such unity and faith, in this fiftieth year of our independence,
I am painfully aware of the deterioration that has taken place in our
country and in our society in recent times. The traditional cultural and
spiritual values, which have been the mainstay of our civilization, seem
to be losing their grip over society and politics. Sheer opportunism and
value-less power-politics have taken over the place of principles and
idealism, that had been the hall-mark of our social and political life.
Violence has increased in the relationship between people, groups and
parties. Social evils like the ill-treatment of women, and the weaker
sections like the Scheduled Castes, including atrocities against them,
are on the increase marring the fair name of India in the world. And corruption
is corroding the vitals of our politics and our society. Mahatma Gandhi,
with prophetic insight, had observed, on the growing phenomenon of corruption
as follows: "Corruption will be out one day, howevermuch one may try to
conceal it: and the public can, as it is its right and duty, in every
case of justifiable suspicion, call its servants to strict account, dismiss
them, sue them in a law court, or appoint an arbitrator or inspector to
scrutinize their conduct, as it likes."
It seems the people have to be
in the forefront of the fight against corruption, communalism, casteism
and criminalization of politics and life, in the country. A social movement
or a widespread national movement is needed to cleanse the system. Such
a social movement need not be merely negative, but for positive purposes.
Illiteracy, for example, has become a disgrace and the greatest obstacle
against the progress of the country. Cannot we launch a mass movement
for literacy, involving the people, the students, the educated unemployed,
the teachers, public servants, and the private enterprises. In the same
way, social movements are required for fighting poverty, population growth,
and environmental degradation. In all this, I call for a new partnership
between the government and the people. India has always had a vision of
the world, and a message for the world.
It has played a crucial role in
international relations, and has every right to be in the central organs
of the United Nations System. From the dawn of our civilization we had
believed that the world is one, and humanity is a single family. In the
dark and bitter days of the Cold War, it was this vision that Jawaharlal
Nehru projected to the world, through his policy of nonalignment and peaceful
co-existence. Cold War is fortunately over today partly due to the refusal
of India and other nonaligned nations, to join up with one or the other
bloc, and their efforts to promote detente and reconciliation between
the two. A new pluralistic world order has now emerged but there are still
signs of the powerful developed nations trying to marginalise the weak
and developing countries, which constitute two-thirds of the world. And,
real disarmament and a world without arms remain a distant dream. In this
context, India entertains her vision of the world as an association of
free and independent nations in an inter-dependent world. Let us, on this
fiftieth anniversary of our Independence, dedicate ourselves to the welfare
and happiness of the people of India, the peoples of Asia, and all humanity.
Thank you
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