ADDRESS
TO THE NATION BY SHRI K.R.NARAYANAN, PRESIDENT OF INDIA, ON THE EVE
OF INDEPENDENCE DAY
AUGUST 14, 1999
Fellow
citizens, Friends, On the eve of the 52nd anniversary of India's Independence,
I have great pleasure in extending to all fellow citizens, whether living
in India or abroad, my warm greetings and felicitations. I send a special
word of greeting and felicitation to our brave jawans and to our kisan
and mazdoor brothers and sisters, who toil and sweat from dawn to dusk
and keep our country going. I would like, this year, to convey the boundless
admiration and gratitude of the nation to our Defence and Para-military
Forces. It is the death-defying courage of our young men, hailing from
every State, and every part of India, the sons of our common folk, fighting
on the bleak and hazardous heights of Kargil, Batalik and Dras that protected
India's sovereignty and territorial integrity, driving the intruders from
our sacred soil across the Line of Control in Jammu and Kashmir.
Tomorrow
when the national tri-colour flies atop the ramparts of the historic Red
Fort and over a multitude of humble dwellings across the land, it will
flutter in salute to the flower of our youth who sacrificed everything
to preserve the honour of our flag. We must resolve now that their sacrifice
does not go in vain. Years ago, our First Prime Minister Pandit Jawaharlal
Nehru had noted a common failing of our country and observed that "the
basic fact remains that we have yet to develop as a unified nation...Under
some calamity or external danger, we may well unite. When the immediate
danger is removed, we fall back into our respective shells and lose the
sense of the whole. We try to get out of these shells and then, something
happens that lays bare our inner urges and failings. Whether it is provincialism
or caste, we still live in a tribal age". Kargil has shaken us out of
our narrow shells and forged a new national unity in the crucible of the
common danger suddenly imposed on us. Friends, we hear voices from the
other side threatening more Kargils in the future.
We have to remain united
and prepared not only when war-like situations come upon us, but in normal
times also, so that we are not ever again taken unawares by surprise attacks.
We have to pay special attention to strengthening our armed forces, equip
them with the latest weapons and force multipliers. Hitherto our expenditure
on defence has been one of the lowest in the world in terms of percentage
of the GDP, much lower than that of our neighbours. It is incumbent upon
us to rectify this imbalance. At the same time let us remember that a
country is defended not by arms alone but by wise policies and the strength
of its economy, by the justice and cohesion of its society, by the unity
of its people. We are a peace-loving people by nature and tradition.
We
wish to live in peace with our neighbours and with the entire world. Indeed
it was due to this passion for peace and our desire to avoid a fratricidal
civil war, in the sub-continent, that the leaders of the Indian National
Congress agreed to the partition of our motherland into India and Pakistan.
It is ironic that this great sacrifice on our part and our desire to live
in peace with Pakistan have not prevented unprovoked aggression and subversion
against our country. In October 1947, in the very first year of our Independence,
Pakistan launched an attack on us in order to wrest Jammu and Kashmir
from the Indian Union. On October 29th Mahatma Gandhi said at his prayer
meeting in Delhi that now that "the Maharaja of Kashmir has announced
his decision to accede to the Indian Union ...and that he has taken refuge
in the Indian Union, he should be protected". Answering the question as
to what should the small band of Indian soldiers sent to Srinagar by air
do, Gandhiji said: "Let them fight to the end. The job of armed soldiers
is to march ahead and repel the attacking enemy. They die in fighting,
but never retreat".
It was this advice by the Father of the Nation and
the apostle of non-violence that our brave soldiers followed in 1947 and
in the recent attack on us in the Kargil area in Jammu and Kashmir. In
January 1948 Gandhiji said "We must never, under any circumstances, treat
anyone as our enemy...My reason and my heart tell me that, if for some
reason, we are unable to forge friendship between Muslims and Hindus,
not only here but in Pakistan and in the whole world, we shall not be
able to keep our free India for long. It will pass into the hands of others",
and the freedom gained by both India and Pakistan "will be lost". On the
awful prospect of a war between India and Pakistan he further warned,
with his shrewd insight into the real politik of the world, that "If you
imagine to-day that we can fight and win, let me say that even before
you do so, some other world power is going to swallow us up. It will swallow,
in fact, both the countries.
If all my friends who are sensible people
and who have spent several years with me in my work, understand that much,
we would all be safe". While driving this basic point home Gandhiji had
a clear grasp of the reality of the situation and said "The fact is that
Pakistan has invaded Kashmir. Indian troops have gone there as defenders
at the express invitation of the Maharaja of the State and of Sheikh Abdullah
who is the real leader of the Kashmiri people. I shall advise Pakistan
and India to sit together and decide the matter. If they are interested
in a settlement what is the need for an arbitrator." Gandhiji was against
the intervention of a third party or of a foreign hand as arbitrator.
I recall these words to-day because they sum up the totality of the position
which we have followed. That was our position at the Shimla Summit in
1972 and that was the position our Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee
took when he travelled to Lahore this year and signed the Lahore Declaration
with the Prime Minister of Pakistan. We adhere to the same friendly stand
but, as we have been let down more than once in the past, it is prudent
of us and it is our duty to our people to be prepared for any surprise
attack on us.
We have to act according to the old adage that eternal vigilance
is the price of freedom as well as of peace. Friends, as we celebrate
our Independence to-morrow we recall in grateful remembrance the band
of great and selfless men and women who led us in the struggle -- Mahatma
Gandhi, Jawaharlal Nehru, Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, Maulana Abul Kalam
Azad, Babu Rajendra Prasad, Chakravarti Rajagopalachari, Sarojini Naidu
and the incomparable Netaji Subash Chandra Bose, and a host of others.
We also recall the foot soldiers of that struggle, countless heroes and
heroines who carried aloft the banner of Swaraj. Their aim was to free
this ancient land so that millions of Indians sunk in poverty, disease
and squalor would rise and live in dignity as free human beings. We have
yet to redeem the pledge they gave to our people. One third of our people
still live below the poverty level, almost half of our adult population
is illiterate, and more than half of our children are under-nourished.
And withal our population is increasing at an alarming rate - it has been
estimated that India's population would cross the one billion mark on
Independence Day.
The great strides we have made in economic development
and in the improvement in the condition of our people has been, to some
extent, negatived by this population explosion. We have to gather the
political and social will to stem this tide, instead of frittering away
our energies in the pursuit of the politics of power and pelf. Great causes
cry out for our urgent attention. The women of India have not yet come
out of the long night of discrimination, inequality and denial of rights
in which they have been living for ages. But it is gratifying to note
that in different parts of India they have been rising and organizing
themselves in movements for self-employment and economic empowerment.
They need political support. The struggle for the basic and minimum needs
of our people - for food, nutrition, health, education, drinking water
and energy -- remain an unfinished business. The magnitude of these problems
is so immense that if we do not address them as our over-riding political,
social and economic priorities, the galloping population would overwhelm
us in the future. Against this background I am glad to recognize the grass-root
movements cropping up in different parts of our country for supervision
of development programmes by the people for education, health, employment,
etc. for which Government has set apart large sums of money.
The Right
to Information is one such grass-root movement which deserves wider popular
and legislative support. Our natural environment and life sources such
as air, water and land are to-day receiving greater attention than before,
thanks to the efforts of citizens and NGO's. But I am afraid, by and large,
we remain reckless consumers than preservers of these life-sources. It
is time that we took conservation and other environmental questions not
as fashionable positions but as matters of life and death. No development
will be sustainable or justifiable that ignores Nature and the human being.
On the 26th of November this year it will be 50 years since we adopted,
enacted and gave to ourselves the Constitution of India. The Constitution
is the sheet anchor of our polity. It is my earnest hope that it would
continue to be respected by all and become an instrument of social change
and transformation of the status of the underprivileged as envisaged by
Babasaheb Ambedkar. Science and technology, which occupy the centre-stage
in our progress is paying heed to the human dimensions of development.
Thanks to the efforts put in during the first two or three decades India
can to-day boast of a stabilized green revolution, a diversified industrial
infrastructure, and a Science and Technology-base for our further development.
While Jawaharlal Nehru's vision of "science solving the problem of hunger
and poverty" in our country has not yet been fulfilled, we have been able
to break the back of the demon of hunger by resort to science in our agriculture.
Our progress in the development of satellites, atomic energy, information
technology and bio-technology are not merely climbing the high peaks of
Science and Technology, but are applying the techniques to grass-root
problems and to the human needs of the country. It is heartening that
our scientists are now wide awake to the importance of patenting our diverse
genetic riches before they are taken away by the advanced nations. India
is bound to emerge as a major scientific-technological power in the new
millennium. Rolling back or putting a cap on the advancement of science
is contrary to the very spirit and nature of science, and against the
equitable world order that we are pledged to bring into being.
Friends,
in a few weeks from now the people of India will be exercising their franchise
to elect the l3th Lok Sabha and some of the State Assemblies. Our record
of orderly elections, which form the basis of our democratic polity, is
now acknowledged by the world. Indian voters have exercised their franchise
and chosen their representatives with practical common sense; they have
reposed confidence with generosity; withdrawn it without ambiguity; created,
preserved and demolished mandates. No one dares take the Indian voter
for granted. It is gratifying for us that to-day the world significance
of Indian democracy has begun to dawn upon the developed democracies of
the world. But still we must not forget that often in global power-politics
the blood of strategic affinity is thicker than the life-giving waters
of democracy. I would like to avail this opportunity to urge all contestants
and campaigners in the coming polls to maintain our democracy's track
record, to abjure appeals of a narrow sectarian nature and show a broad
tolerance of opinions of others. I trust that the ugly phenomenon of voter-intimidation
and booth-capturing which has marred voting in some pockets in the past,
will not be tolerated anywhere on this occasion.
The firmness shown in
this regard by our Election Commission has been widely appreciated. Our
Election Commission, our Judiciary and other Constitutional authorities
like the Office of the Comptroller and Auditor General of India, are institutions
of which we are proud for their impartiality, objectivity and sense of
responsibility. Likewise we derive great satisfaction from the functioning
of the National Commissions that have been set up for the welfare of our
minorities, women, scheduled castes and scheduled tribes and other vulnerable
sections of our society. Fellow citizens and friends, on this last Independence
Day of the century we have every reason to look forward to the new millennium
with hope and self-assurance. Despite all the obstacles set in our path
we are well served by the strength of our democratic institutions and
we draw sustenance from our rich heritage from the past and from the reawakened
spirit of our people. In this spirit we send our greetings to our neighbours
in South Asia - to Bangladesh, Nepal, Bhutan, Sri Lanka, Maldives and
Pakistan with whom we are engaged in the adventure of building up SAARC
as a prosperous and viable regional entity. We also send our greetings
to the friendly countries of ASEAN with whom we are closely associated,
to Japan and to the countries of West Asia and Central Asia with whom
we have traditional ties of friendship. I am delighted that our relations
with the People's Republic of China have improved. On the 50th anniversary
of the founding of the People's Republic of China and of the establishment
of diplomatic relations between the two countries, I would like to send
our warm greetings to the people and government of China.
It is a matter
of satisfaction to us that our relations with the countries of the sister
continent of Africa, the Commonwealth of Nations, the European Union and
the United States of America are marked by warmth and understanding. Our
close relations with our time-tested friend, Russia, continue to develop
and diversify in several fields as well as in multilateral fora; this
is most gratifying. From the inception of our independence India has been
striving for a one-world that is free from the scourge of war and free
of weapons of mass destruction. In the new century that is at our door
step we pledge ourselves to persist with this effort. Towards this we
would like to see the full potential and scope of the United Nations Organization
realized through wider representation and restructuring. We will continue
to attach the greatest importance to the Non-Aligned Movement in the formation
of which we take pride and which has played an important role in ending
the nightmare of the Cold War and which we believe is of relevance in
providing stability and balance to the pluralistic world order that is
emerging. Friends, on this independence day let us resolve to imbue our
lives with the spirit of that midnight hour when we made our tryst with
destiny. May the tri-colour continue to inspire us and fulfil our destiny
as a people and as a nation.
Thank you
|
