ADDRESS
TO THE NATION BY SHRI K.R. NARAYANAN, PRESIDENT OF INDIA, ON THE OCCASION
OF CLOSING FUNCTION OF GOLDEN JUBILEE OF INDIA'S INDEPENDENCE
NEW DELHI, SATURDAY, AUGUST 15, 1998
A
year ago on August 15 I had the privilege of addressing you at the inauguration
of the Golden Jubilee celebrations of our Independence. I have now the
pleasure of speaking to you again at the conclusion of these celebrations.
I would, at the outset, like to extend my greetings to my fellow citizens,
the men and women, and the youth and the children of India. The Golden
Jubilee celebrations are drawing to a close, but the spirit of August
15, and the ideals and the aspirations symbolized by it, remain to be
pursued with dedication and with renewed vigour - "the ending of poverty
and ignorance and disease and inequality of opportunity", as Pandit Jawaharlal
Nehru urged at that mid-night hour. Thanks to the values bequeathed to
us by our age-old culture and civilization, and revived and revitalized
in the prolonged and peaceful struggle for freedom led by the Father of
the Nation, Mahatma Gandhi, we have pursued these ideals and objectives
during the last 50 years within the framework of social and communal harmony
and broad tolerance in spite of insuperable obstacles.
In January 1947,
at his prayer meeting, after ending his historic fast, Gandhiji said "In
this great country of ours there is room for all" and that "We must never,
under any circumstances, treat any one as an enemy. We have all to live
in harmony". It is in accordance with this ancient motto of the Indian
civilization, restated by Gandhiji at the time of his soul's agony, that
independent India under Pandit Nehru had built up the secular foundations
of our polity. On these foundations rest our social and economic development,
our democracy, our unity and coherence as a nation, and our position in
the comity of nations . On this solemn occasion let us pay our homage
to all those who had contributed to and sacrificed for this ideal, especially
the common people of this land whose massive commonsense has withstood,
by and large, all extremist ideological blandishments and emotional incitements,
and helped us to keep to the golden middle path.
Indian democracy is the
most precious product of this spirit of tolerance and this approach of
secularism. During the last fifty years we have nourished the plant of
democracy, with tender care and touching faith, and it has to-day fully
flowered. Though this has elicited reluctant recognition from the democracies
of the developed world, it must be noted that strategic considerations,
even when they are misconceived, may be thicker than the spirit of democracy.
What is important for us is that we preserve, protect, expand, and deepen
democracy so that it covers meaningfully every section, every layer of
our vast and complex society. Already the panchayati raj experiment is
extending democracy to the grass roots of our society. With decentralization
and devolution of powers to the panchayats Indian democracy could involve
the masses intimately in the building of a new and resurgent India. It
could release new social and economic forces that could put substance
and dynamism into our large developmental programmes.
This is an occasion
when we could take stock of our achievements in panchayati raj and find
ways and means to inject greater democratic and developmental dynamism
into its functioning. Though the women of India have a glorious record
not only in looking after their families but in participating in public
activities and in fighting for the freedom of the nation, they are to-day
marginalized in our society and in politics. How can the nation progress
when nearly 50% of the population is oppressed, ill-treated, discriminated
against, denied basic human and civil rights? Instances of gender discrimination
and atrocities against women ought to make our menfolk hang their heads
in shame before the civilized world. Gandhi, Nehru, Subhas Chandra Bose,
Sarojini Naidu,and indeed all our great leaders had stood up for the rights
of our women. In this Golden Jubilee year of our independence let us not
deny them their legitimate social, economic and political rights. Let
us gracefully concede to them one-third reservation in Parliament and
the Legislatures before they wrest it from our hands by their votes of
wrath in the General Elections.
In our society of multiple deprivations
and discriminations, the Scheduled Castes, the Scheduled Tribes and large
sections of the Backward Classes are the most deprived, oppressed, and
marginalized. Indeed, the acid test of any social reform or economic progress
in India is whether it has made a positive difference to the lot of the
members of these classes. Since Independence, largely due to the impulse
of the Gandhian reform movement and the more militant movement launched
by Babasaheb Ambedkar, every Government has pursued policies for the upliftment
of these people. But progressive legislations enacted by the Governments
are being negatived at the level of implementation by forces in society
that could only be described as counter-revolutionary. If we do not curb
the reckless play of these reactionary forces who not only obstruct the
implementation of reforms, but commit atrocities on the weaker sections
with impunity, there is great danger of things going wrong with our democracy.
The momentum of our progressive legislation must be sustained. The backlog
of vacancies reserved for the scheduled castes and scheduled tribes, especially
in the higher rungs of government service, must be filled in. Another
section of our society, tender and beautiful, whom we all love, but neglect,
ill-treat, and even barbarously abuse, are our children. The social conscience
of our people has to be aroused to ensure a fair deal for the children,
and the State has to take a leading role in primary and secondary education
so that children, especially of the weaker sections, are given education
and thus prevented from working in hazardous occupations and becoming
bonded child labour. This is not only a humanitarian task, but one that
directly affects the health, education and the general social development
of the nation. One part of India to which special and focussed attention
needs to be given, is the North-East. Despite being rich in natural resources,
that part of the country has remained under-developed. Compounding this
disability, is the factor of insurgent activities among a section of its
people.
This calls for the most urgent attention and action, so that the
North East feels a secure participant in our national progress and part
and parcel of our mainstream. In the maintenance of democracy the example
set by the legislators and the holders of public office is supremely important.
Public office was regarded as a sacred space. Today it is regarded by
an increasing number of wielders of it, as an opportunity to strike gold,
and enjoy the loaves and fishes of power. It is a matter of the deepest
regret that a great cynicism prevails in the public mind about politics
and the administration. Floor crossings and cross-votings in power games
are no longer rare transgressions of democratic norms.
I cannot but recall
the example, here, of Acharya Narendra Deva who, when he decided to leave
the Congress, persuaded his colleagues in the U.P. Assembly to resign
from their seats in the House. Speaking here in this hall on the midnight
of August l4-l5, l947, it is surprising that Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan
referred to evils that have crept into administration and said: "Unless
we destroy corruption in high places, root out every trace of nepotism,
love of power, profiteering and blackmarketing which have spoiled the
good name of this great country in recent times, we will not be able to
raise the standards of efficiency in administration as well as in the
production and distribution of the necessary goods of life." Unfortunately,
those words are true to-day, if not truer.
I cannot but voice a pervasive
sense of public concern over the frequent departure from order and decorum
in parliamentary behaviour. Scenes of frayed tempers, often degenerating
to violent acts in the well of the House, bring no credit to our democracy.
Our people take democracy seriously. Let us not betray their faith in
it -- our most precious legacy. In the field of industrialisation and
economic and scientific-technological development India has made substantial,
even spectacular progress. Our Green Revolution and White Revolution have
given us self-sufficiency in foodgrains and milk production. But we have
still to bring about a nutrition revolution capable of giving our people,
especially the young people and expectant mothers, a nutritional diet.
This lacuna has to be filled. And literacy, education, and health standards
of our country have to be raised not only for securing a higher place
in the world human development index but in providing the basic conditions
and the motive force to any significant economic growth.
India to-day
is a significant industrial and economic power of the world. And all estimates
are that early in the 21st century, she would be one of the major world
economic powers. Thanks to the liberalisation of and the opening up of
the economy to the world that we have launched since 1992 and which we
have been prosecuting with vigour as well as a measure of reasonable caution,
India with its nearly 300 million strong middle class seething with the
entrepreneurial spirit, and one of the largest markets in the world, has
become a very attractive place for foreign investment. On this occasion
I should like to greet Indian citizens and people of Indian origin all
over the world and invite them to invest in India with national pride
and confidence that their investments would be safe, productive and lucrative
in the land of their origin. In science and technology, thanks to the
vision of Jawaharlal Nehru and our scientists from Homi Bhabha and Vikram
Sarabhai onwards, we have made great leaps forward.
To-day Indian science
has been crowned with important successes. These are for the welfare and
safety of our people and of our nation. We are as intensely interested
in peace and in a world without arms, as we have always been, and we have
declared our willingness to join any international arrangements and agreements
that are non-discriminatory to rid the world of nuclear and other weapons
of mass destruction. We have conducted nuclear tests recently not with
the intention of using it against anyone. In fact I believe that atomic
bombs are useful only when they are not used. They can only be a deterrent
in the hands of a nation. Despite the prognosis by some of a nuclear conflict
between India and Pakistan,
I think, now that both countries have these
weapons, it would drive home to both, the inescapable need to settle the
differences between them peacefully and through negotiations. In the Shimla
Agreement of 1972 India and Pakistan had solemnly declared to put an end
to the conflict and confrontation between them and to resolve all differences
through bilateral and peaceful means. Nuclear weapons have now made it
compulsory for us to do so. Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru in his famous broadcast
of September 7, 1946 had sent out the greetings of the newly emerging
independent India to the world. He sent his greetings and good wishes
to the United Kingdom, to United States of America, to the then Soviet
Union, to the nations and peoples of Asia, to our neighbours and to China
which he called "that mighty country with a mighty past".
To-day on this
solemn occasion I should like to renew those greetings and expressions
of friendship to our neighbours in South Asia and Asia. Pandit Nehru had
pledged then to work for a one world, a world in which there was free
co-operation of free peoples, and where no class or group exploits another.
To-day on behalf of the people of India I renew that pledge. May I conclude
by offering to the martyrs of our freedom struggle and to the great leaders
and foot-soldiers of our freedom struggle, my homage. I also offer my
greetings to our valiant defence and para-military forces. It is their
vigil that safeguards our unity and sovereignty. Let us, on this landmark
occasion, re-dedicate ourselves to India's greatness.
Thank you
|
