ADDRESS
TO THE NATION BY SHRI K.R.NARAYANAN, PRESIDENT OF INDIA, ON THE EVE
OF INDEPENDENCE DAY-2000
MONDAY, AUGUST 14, 2000
Fellow
citizens, On the eve of the 53rd anniversary of our Independence, and
the first Independence Day of the twenty-first century, I have great pleasure
to offer to my fellow citizens, whether living in India or abroad, my
greetings and salutations. I extend a special word of gratitude to the
brave men of our defence forces who guard our frontiers, to our kisans,
mazdoors, artisans and entrepreneurs, our teachers, doctors, engineers,
scientists and technologists, and the youth of India, whose toil and hardwork
have put India among the front rank of the nations of the world. My fellow
citizens, fifty-three years, of independence inspires pride and confidence
among all of us. We liberated ourselves from foreign rule and established
a democratic polity through our Constitution which embodied modern ideas
of governance and the rights and liberties of the people, and blended
them with advanced ideas of social equality and justice, integrating them
all into our age-old human values and cultural heritage. Our second struggle
began for economic independence and social transformation soon after 1947.
Indeed this second struggle is even more arduous and prolonged than the
first one. Our objectives of national construction, social change and
the upliftment of our people from the abyss of illiteracy, ill-health,
economic deprivation and social backwardness, became the driving force
of our development. To-day, on the anniversary of our independence, it
is appropriate to reassess our progress and advancement and reflect on
our failures and shortcomings. I have no hesitation in saying that our
achievements have been impressive in spite of many shortcomings. The forging
of the unity of the nation and its consolidation during the last fifty-three
years, is an achievement that we could be proud of. The unity of India
which had haunted us for centuries as an elusive dream has become a reality
born out of diversity. The establishment of democracy in this vast land
of bewildering variety is the greatest achievement of India since independence.
It is heartening to know from a recent study of people’s attitude in our
country that the poor and deprived classes defend democracy with greater
conviction and vigour than the elite and the affluent. In the area of
economic, technological, social and human development we have also registered
impressive progress. Our sharp focus on nation building and the constructive
efforts through planning and economic development provided a solid economic
content to our political and cultural unity and a strong, industrial,
technological and agricultural base to our nation. We have achieved enviable
industrial growth. We are reckoned as one of the twelve industrialised
countries and also one of the fastest growing economies of the world.
In the field of science and technology India has made rapid strides that
is to-day the envy of many countries. Thanks to the imaginative leadership
given by Pandit Nehru and our great scientists like Homi Bhabha and Vikram
Sarabhai, we achieved remarkable success in nuclear science, especially
in the application of it, for peaceful and constructive purposes. We have
attained new heights in the pursuit of space sciences mastering satellite
technologies and launch capabilities.
In information technology India
has made a leap forward, especially in software, and we are looked upon
as an emerging IT super-power in the world. Indeed Indian science to-day
inspires confidence. An eminent Indian scientist has observed that "if
one is depressed, one should think of science to overcome the depression."
In spite of this impressive catalogue of achievements we are still plagued
by poverty, ignorance, disease and superstition. Our policies, programmes,
five year plans and other developmental efforts as reflected in our economic
liberalisation, have not been adequate enough to ensure basic needs to
our vast millions even after more than five decades of independence. The
common man and woman have nursed the lingering feeling that they have
yet to taste the fruits of independence. On the other hand, the conditions
of society after independence, especially the new affluence of the privileged
classes, have given rise to certain evil fruits.
The precious heritage
of tolerance of different faiths and ideologies, which has been the cementing
force in our complex pluralistic society, is showing signs of breaking
down and a new intolerance, resulting often in violence, is manifesting
itself in our society. In addition there has been a resurgence of old
superstitions and outmoded social practices retarding the progress of
society along modern lines. Child marriage, for example, was made illegal
during the British time under the pressure of enlightened Indian social
reformers. But to-day child marriages are common in some of the States
of India and are celebrated openly with impunity, receiving publicity
in the sensation-crazy sections of the media. Our women are still treated
as less than human. Day in and day out, we read in the newspapers gruesome
stories of dowry deaths of young women in the flower of their youth, because
of the insatiable greed of husbands and the in-laws.
The law enforcing
agencies remain indifferent or ineffective, and the law itself remains
awfully inadequate. In fact statistics show that crimes against women
have been on the increase. No place is safe for them, not even their own
homes. Swami Vivekananda used to say "the land of India is soaked…with
the tears of widows". To-day it is soaked by the tears of women in general,
and even girl children, who are ill-treated and murdered. In a recent
case of a five-year old girl abducted, raped and murdered, the Sessions
Judge let the accused go scot-free. In his eloquent judgment he said:
"I am of the view that the prosecution has not been able to prove the
guilt of the accused beyond the shadow of doubt. Dark clouds of doubts
are hovering all around, the benefit of which is to be given to the accused."
Indeed, there are dark clouds of prejudice and callous unconcern hanging
over our society with regard to the problem of rape and atrocities on
women. Since neither conscience nor common sense is responding to this
tragic problem, should not the law-makers rewrite the laws so that a deterrent
against such crimes exist in society? I referred to the growth of violence
in our society. Indeed crime and violence and the links between criminals,
politicians and important people in society, has become almost an unholy
alliance.
Criminals are being glamourised by the media and are treated
as if they are the new heroes of our society. It is time that civil society
and the lawful government asserted their authority and primacy over the
dare-devil heroes of crime and banditry. At every social and political
level there is crying need to speak out against crimes and violence of
all kinds, but even such rhetoric is absent in India to-day. On the other
hand there is a tendency to romanticize them. Kazi Nazrul Islam talking
about the colonial times in Bengal had observed "To-day the greater the
robber, the bigger the thief and the cleverer the cheat, the more honourable,
the more distinguished and the more dignified his seat". We should take
care not to have those times return to our society.
My fellow citizens,
in the encircling gloom of these negative tendencies manifesting themselves
in our society, there are positive and encouraging trends that give hope
to us. There are, in fact, hundreds and thousands of examples in our country,
that too at the grassroots levels, in remote villages, and tribal belts,
where poor and deprived people, women, dalits etc. through their associations,
panchayats, youth clubs, mahila mandals, community efforts, thrift societies
and as individuals, took innovative steps, raised resources, used locally
available skills and contributed voluntary labour to change their conditions
of life. These examples of assertion of people’s power are testimony to
the success of democracy. Once when Mahatma Gandhi was asked as to how
he would fight foreign rule, he at once replied, "with the strength of
dumb millions".
I think our second struggle for development and social
change, as I had mentioned earlier, will also increasingly rely on the
strength and efforts of our ordinary people. To-day women are in the forefront
to spread literacy and education among people. Rural women in Madhya Pradesh
are campaigning for literacy by coining a slogan ‘Jai Akshar’ which they
say is equal in importance to ‘Jai Hind’. They argue that the way ‘Jai
Hind’ slogan rallied people to liberate themselves from foreign rule,
‘Jai Akshar’ will liberate them from illiteracy and ignorance. In other
parts of rural India women have increasingly realised that literacy may
not have given them Swarg but has certainly given them Swar and that they
can change their Vidhi through Vidya. Literacy has awakened their consciousness,
empowered them and brought about significant changes in their lives. Neo-literate
Rosamma in Andhra Pradesh started the anti-arrack movement which spread
to other parts of the country.
Emboldened by their ability to write, women
in Tamil Nadu organised themselves against contractors of stone quarries
and eventually managed the quarries themselves. Literacy movement helped
to lift the veil off women and has also helped them to organise credit
and thrift societies and fight against liquor, the dowry system, meaningless
rituals, and oppression and discrimination against them. It is because
of their empowerment that women are now restless to further widen their
opportunities. It is evident from the answer of some rural ladies in Haryana,
who when asked about the meaning of good life replied, "women’s participation
in decision making". As I had mentioned earlier, literacy movement has
opened many avenues for our ordinary people. For example new watershed
management programmes have witnessed participation of large numbers of
poor women and men for harvesting rain water, recharging ground water
level and reviving rivers and lakes.
Our tribals, poor women and men are
the best protectors of the environment. Watershed programmes in Maharashtra
and Madhya Pradesh, river revival and cleaning programmes in Rajasthan,
Orissa, Uttar Pradesh and roof top rain-water harvesting programmes in
Mizoram, are some of the examples which show the involvement of people
and voluntary organisations to face the crisis of water shortage and environmental
degradation in our country. An experiment that is worth taking note of
is the campaign for decentralized planning launched in Kerala a few years
ago. This, of course, is an old Gandhian idea that is significant in the
modern context. The District Development Councils were asked to plan for
their districts in consultation with block and gram panchayats. 35 to
40% of the State’s total outlay on projects and programmes in the Five
Year Plan was devolved to the local bodies.
This decentralisation and
devolution of funds have given economic power to people at the grass-roots
level, aroused their enthusiasm for developmental work and enabled them
to work together for their own advancement in their respective areas.
These days when people feel helpless in the face of the blind and inexorable
march of globalisation eroding even national sovereignties, an answer
to the problem might well lie in a radical decentralisation of power to
the grass-roots institutions. In this context I recall what a British
administrator in India had said about the durability of our ancient panchayats.
He said: "Dynasty after dynasty tumbles down. Revolution succeeds revolution.
Hindu, Pathan, Mogul, Mahratta, Sikh, English are all masters in their
turn. But the village communities remain the same." To-day we do not want
the village communities to remain fixed in time past, but to change and
keep pace with the times present and times future. Our new panchayats
in which people have become active and conscious of their rights and upon
which have been bestowed financial and administrative powers in a decentralized
scheme, can be made strong and self-reliant units of democracy, capable
of standing on their own feet, and also of strengthening the identity
and the sovereignty of the larger nation. Herein lies the significance
of the movements which are arising at the grass-roots of Indian democracy.
With the initiative and the innovative capabilities of our grass-roots
institutions and of our ordinary people enhanced through decentralized
democracy, it would be possible for India to be an effective player in
the globalized world that is emerging. India, my fellow citizens, had
always a world view and believed that she has a part to play in the world.
Our wise leaders who got us independence and shaped the future of free
India, had formulated a world approach and a policy for India – the policy
of non-alignment and peaceful co-existence. That policy has performed
a historical role – that of showing the world a way out of the nightmare
of the cold war. Basically, we have adhered to that approach and to that
policy. We wish to be friends and live in peaceful co-existence with all
nations of the world, more especially with our neighbours. At the same
time we will have to be prepared to defend the unity and integrity of
our nation and the safety and prosperity of our people.
It is indeed a
tribute to our democracy that people are now mobilising themselves to
protect their rights and to realise their basic needs and change their
living conditions. After all democracy is a method of enlisting people’s
participation. Howsoever deprived and distressed our people are, they
have shown remarkable initiative to participate in civil society to fight
against social evils, poverty, corruption, environmental degradations
and a host of other ills gravely affecting their daily lives. In fact
the silver linings in the dark clouds of backwardness and deprivation
are the people’s initiatives which have served as crucible of new ideas
and methodologies for nation building. Mahatma Gandhi, the father of our
nation, had very prophetically said in 1947, "As a matter of fact, if
the people will help themselves, then the Government is bound to move
and that is what I will call real democracy which is built from below".
Let me conclude with a few lines from a famous Hindi poem :
Thank you
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