Shri Chandra Shekhar has been an ordinary Member of Parliament -- I should rather say an extra-ordinary Member of Parliament -- until he jumped straightaway to the summit as Prime Minister of India.  Winston Churchill was once asked what he valued most in his life.  He answered: "Two simple letters which come as suffix to my name, Winston Churchill M.P.  This can be said of Chandra Shekhar M.P. who stood out as an outstanding parliamentarian even when he was an M.P. and also when he became the Prime Minister.  On assuming the office of the Prime Minister he called on the Opposition party leaders.  When the surprised press asked why he made these "courtesy calls", he reportedly answered:  "No.  Those are not courtesy calls.  In parliamentary democracy, I would like to emphasize it is by mutual discussion, by imbibing each other's ideas, to the extent we can accommodate, that we can run the system smoothly.  It is not a war zone that we should always think in terms of fighting or confrontation.  Here we have to have reconciliation.  As Prime Minister it is my responsibility to see that all sections of political opinion in the country feel that way.  Therefore, I have no hesitation in meeting those who have contributed to public affairs."

In his parliamentary activities Chandra Shekharji has always conducted himself within the rules and procedures of Parliament.  He once said that if we want to have parliamentary democracy in this country, we should see to it that parliamentary decorum is maintained.  In the first week of March 1991 when the parliamentary proceedings were marred by disturbances he said in a broadcast to the nation that in a democracy we must keep some restraint on ourselves.  As a superb Parliamentarian Shri Chandra Shekhar was master of debating skill that he could, while observing, the rules of the game and restraining himself, hit hard at his opponents and move and shake the House as well as the nation.  Gandhiji once said of Shri S. Satyamurthi "If we have ten persons like Satyamurthi in Parliament the British Government will fall without a struggle".  Shri Chandra Shekhar is a parliamentarian who could use the instrument of Parliament for revolutionary as well as constructive purposes.

Shri Chandra Shekhar is one of those outstanding Parliamentarians who focussed the nation's attention on the problems of the common man and made Parliament the voice of the people.  Winston Churchill said that "Our Parliament has survived because it made itself the spokesman not of the governments but of the people."  In our Parliament Chandra Shekharji was from the beginning a spokesman of the people.  His concern for the lot of the millions of our common people led him to move a Resolution in the Rajya Sabha in 1973 on the need to make institutional changes in our economic structure if we were to achieve the objectives of our Five Year Plans.  He argued "If you want to implement your plan . . . . then you should try to have more faith in the common man . . . . and rely upon the toiling masses."

From a radical member and leader of the Praja Socialist Party, a disciple of Acharya Narendra Dev and a follower and colleague of Jayaprakash Narain, to an "angry young man" and "a young Turk" of the Congress, to the Prime Minister of India and now the Samajwadi Party leader, Shri Chandra Shekhar has remained a Socialist at heart.  As Prime Minister he told the country "If there is an ocean of misery around, you cannot protect islands of affluence".  This concern for the down-trodden masses was the mainspring of his Socialism.  It was for him not a dogma, but a practical objective to be pursued with passion and commitment.  Like the British Socialist Aneurin Bevan he believed that democratic Socialism was the child of relativist philosophy and a democratic Socialist should have that rare quality of "pursuing with passion qualified judgments" and not pursuing with irrational fervour dogmatic positions.  When he became the Prime Minister of India "The Time" magazine described Shri Chandra Shekhar as "the perennial dissenter of Indian politics".  Commenting on another occasion on dissent Chandra Shekharji remarked: "If dissent and protest were to be misrepresented and sought to be snuffed out democracy would stagnate and society would suffer a sure death."

On this occasion when Shri Chandra Shekhar is being honoured with the Outstanding Parliamentarian Award, may I congratulate this constructive dissenter and this great democrat of Indian politics, and wish him many more years of service to the nation.

Thank you.