ADDRESS
TO THE NATION BY SHRI K.R. NARAYANAN, THE PRESIDENT OF INDIA,
ON THE EVE
OF REPUBLIC DAY -2000
JANUARY 25, 2000
Fellow
citizens, On the eve of the Golden Jubilee of our Republic I have the
privilege to extend to all Indians living in India or abroad, my heartiest
greetings and felicitations. I also send my greetings to the brave personnel
of our armed forces who stand guard to defend the unity and territorial
integrity of the nation. And I pay my homage to the memory of those who
laid down their lives in the defence of the Republic from external aggression
and intermittent terrorist attacks across the border. On this solemn occasion
our thoughts go back to the Father of the Nation who lived and died for
the freedom and unity of our nation, and to the countless men and women
who followed him into the arena and faced immense hardships and sufferings
in the heroic struggle for independence. Our thoughts also go back to
the founding fathers of our Constitution whose far-sighted vision and
arduous labours gave us a Constitution which enshrined the traditional
concepts of liberty,equality and fraternity adding to them the concept
of Justice - social, economic and political -- and declaring our nation
a sovereign democratic Republic.
The word 'Republic' is no ordinary word.
It is a commitment to the effect that, in our State, supreme power is
exercised not by some remote monarch but by the people. It is an affirmation
that the wielder of power in India - the adhinayaka - is the great aggregation
of our people as a whole, whom Rabindranath Tagore has immortalized as
the jana-gana. Let us, on this anniversary, hail that proclamation and
commitment. Let us celebrate the exceptional status we enjoy, the status
of being the world's largest democracy. Given the chequered career of
democracies elsewhere, we can be grateful to be citizens of this Republic;
where an individual, be he ever so high, the Constitution and the laws
made by the people remain higher than him; and where the Executive remains
accountable to the Parliament.
Thanks to our early and visionary support
to science and technology we have made advances in that field as would
excite human imagination anywhere; thanks to our kisans and mazdoors and
entrepreneurs the wheels of our agriculture, commerce and industry turn
steadily with the world; and thanks, above all, to the striving of our
agricultural communities, our granaries remain full. From the 1970s when
our GDP grew at only around 3.5% per annum, economic growth rate has accelerated
to around 6.5%. It is not generally realised that in the 1990s, India
has become one of the 10 fastest growing economies in the world. We can
be justly proud of the abundance of our entrepreneurial ability, the high
levels of domestic private savings, and also of the high level of managerial
and technical skills. All these have enabled our economic reforms to have
a solid and a stable base for further and more rapid growth. This is a
day when we take pride in our achievements, but it must surely also be
a day of honest self-analysis and self-questioning about where we, as
a people and a society, are headed? Fifty years into our life in the Republic
we find that Justice - social, economic and political - remains an unrealized
dream for millions of our fellow citizens.
The benefits of our economic
growth are yet to reach them. We have one of the world's largest reservoirs
of technical personnel, but also the world's largest number of illiterates;
the world's largest middle class, but also the largest number of people
below the poverty line, and the largest number of children suffering from
malnutrition. Our giant factories rise from out of squalor; our satellites
shoot up from the midst of the hovels of the poor. Not surprisingly, there
is sullen resentment among the masses against their condition erupting
often in violent forms in several parts of the country. Tragically, the
growth in our economy has not been uniform. It has been accompanied by
great regional and social inequalities. Many a social upheaval can be
traced to the neglect of the lowest tier of society, whose discontent
moves towards the path of violence. Dalits and tribals are the worst affected
by all this. In parts of rural India forms of sadism seem to be earmarked
for dalit women. From the time of Draupadi our womenfolk had been subjected
to public disrobing and humiliation as a means of vendetta - individual,
social or political. For Dalit women it has become a common experience
in rural areas, but what is astounding is that it has been extended as
one of the methods of ragging in our elite colleges and universities.
To open a newspaper or to hear the news over television now requires nerves
of steel. Violence in society has bared a hundred fangs as the advertisement-driven
consumerism is unleashing frustrations and tensions in our society. The
unabashed, vulgar indulgence in conspicuous consumption by the noveau-riche
has left the underclass seething in frustration. One half of our society
guzzles aerated beverages while the other has to make do with palmfuls
of muddied water. Our three-way fast-lane of liberalization, privatisation
and globalisation must provide safe pedestrian crossings for the unempowered
India also so that it too can move towards 'Equality of Status and Opportunity'.
"Beware of the fury of the patient man" says the old adage. One could
say "beware of the fury of the patient and long-suffering people." We
cannot and ought not halt movement in the trajectories of our modern progress.
Factories will and must rise, satellites must and will soar to the heavens,
and dams over rivers will rise to prevent floods, generate electricity
and irrigate dry lands for cultivation. But that should not cause ecological
and environmental devastation, and the uprooting of human settlements,
especially of tribals and the poor. Ways and methods can be found for
countering the harmful impact of modern technology on the lives of the
common people.
I believe that the answer to the ill-effects of science
and technology is not to turn our back on technology, but to have more
science and technology that is directed to human needs and for the betterment
of the human condition. While Government must be held responsible for
environmental and human consequences of mega projects, the responsibility
for environmental protection cannot however lie with Government alone.
It must also be borne by civil society. There is need to improve the tone
of our social and economic life through improved work ethic and environmental
behaviour. Far too many of us lack the professional pride to see a task
well performed, a responsibility well borne. Accountability in the delivery
of public services is shockingly low. One reason why our infrastructure
remains weak is that the quality of civil work executed is poor - compromised
by sub-standard materials, corrupt practices and sloppy supervision. We
ignore the social dimension of our actions and practices. The late Dr.
Adiseshiah, one of our prominent economists and academicians, wrote about
his mother that she was a high born lady who kept her house spotlessly
clean. Every morning she used to sweep and clean the household herself
and then dump the rubbish in the neighbour's garden. Self-regarding purity
and righteousness ignoring others has been the bane of our culture. It
has created a gulf in our society between people even with regard to the
basic needs and fundamental rights. For example, water is a basic need
and a fundamental right of the people. Yet to-day millions of our people
are struggling to get adequate clean drinking water.
Less than 150 years
ago, there were hardly any government-sponsored water supply schemes in
India. But India had a long-standing strong tradition of water management,
which was built on the technology of rain-water harvesting. Not only that
tradition still survives in the North east and the Himalayan region like
Ladakh but remnants of that tradition can be found in Tamil Nadu, Andhra
Pradesh, Karnataka, Rajasthan and other States. There is no reason why
we cannot revive this tradition of our forefathers. Water is required
for not only drinking, but for agriculture and animal husbandry. Good
water management can help to increase water supply and regenerate rural
ecology and rural economy. Government's efforts to increase water supply
can be supplemented by a people's movement to capture and conserve rain
water. We have to organize a people's movement for stopping the pollution
of our rivers and ground water reserves. This would be a great contribution
to our economy as well as to public health. I have referred earlier to
the question of illiteracy in our country. It is to-day an accepted fact
that literacy and education is at the root of human as well as economic
development. Why is it that as a nation we do not feel the desperate urgency
of making our people literate? I hope that vested interests have not been
fearful of awakening the masses through education.
On the contrary we
should have faith in the people. We should organize a mass movement for
literacy. Cannot we involve the millions of our students, teachers and
civil servants to spread literacy among the masses, at least on a part
time basis? Through such a movement not only literacy but national and
social causes like population control, environmental consciousness could
be spread among the people, not to speak of awareness of and opposition
to many ills that are plaguing our society. Fortunately civic action in
India have multiplied during recent years. The civil society should be
further encouraged to grow and address social, cultural and environmental
challenges confronting the nation. We need a comprehensive policy to promote
the growth of civil society interacting with various branches and levels
of Government. Even in a developed and affluent society like the U.S.A.
there are around 6 million such organizations disposing of 8% of the country's
GDP in their activities. Not only the Government but the private sector
also has an important role to play in a comprehensive civic action plan.
We have a model for us in the constructive programme chalked out and implemented
during the independence movement by Mahatma Gandhi. I said a little earlier
that this is an occasion for honest self-analysis. I think it would not
be wrong to say that as a society we are becoming increasingly insensitive
and callous.
Gandhiji had tried to popularize the Gujarati song which
describes the 'true Vaishnava' as one who knows the other person's pain.
He may not find too many of that description in India today. Be it the
way cars and buses are driven in our city roads, the way garbage and,
particularly, middle class plastic garbage, is strewn around, the way
public servants treat the public, or the public handles public utilities,
the manner in which we squander or pollute precious reserves like water,
the way owners of vehicles allow toxic gases to be spewed into the air
that we breathe, the way we allow children to be exploited, the disabled
to be passed by, speaks of a stony-hearted society, not a compassionate
one that produced the Buddha, Mahavira, Nanak, Kabir and Gandhi. And then
there is our greatest national drawback: the status of our women, and
our greatest national shame, the condition of the Dalits, the erstwhile
untouchables. Fifty years after our Constitution, the plain truth is that
the female half of Indian population continues to be regarded as it was
in the 18th and 19th centuries. It is more than 170 years since Raja Rammohan
Roy caused sati to be abolished. But the infamous practice still manages
to raise its head and, what is worse, even gets explained away as 'suicide'
or as saintly sacrifice! What one finds disconcerting is even the absence
of political rhetoric on these social ills. Commenting on the male-female
disparity in India, Gandhiji wrote in 1931: (and I quote) "You cannot
have one set of weights and measures for the one and a different one for
the other. Yet we have never heard of a husband mounting the funeral pyre
of his deceased wife." (Unquote) Unless the status of women in Indian
society changes, the 'Equality' spoken of in our Preamble will remain
hollow.
It is against this attitude of society and the habit of discrimination
prevalent in society that the demand for constitutional reservation for
women in the Legislatures and Parliament has become a compelling necessity.
We have to ponder over the condition of not only women in our society,
but of the Dalits, the tribals and other weaker sections. Untouchability
has been abolished by law but shades of it remain in the ingrained attitudes
nurtured by the caste system. Though the constitutional provision of reservation
in educational institutions and public services flow from our Constitution,
these provisions remain unfulfilled through bureaucratic and administrative
deformation or by narrow interpretations of these special provisions.
It seems, in the social realm, some kind of a counter revolution is taking
place in India. It is forgotten that these benefits have been provided
not in the way of charity, but as human rights and as social justice to
a section of society who constitute a big chunk of our population, and
who actually contribute to our agriculture, industry and services as landless
labourers, factory and municipal workers. There are signs that our privileged
classes are getting tired of the affirmative action provided by Constitutional
provisions. On this Golden Jubilee I would like to say that let us not
get tired of what we have provided for our weaker sections, for otherwise
as Dr. Ambedkar pointed out, the edifice of our democracy would be like
a palace built on dung heap.
If on an occasion like this golden jubilee
of our Republic we ponder some of these issues, it would be the better
for us. While there is need to be honest with ourselves, I must emphasize,
we must act, not despair. In moments of crisis we rise gloriously to the
occasion as few societies do. The late war in Kargil showed it; the cyclone
in Orissa did so too. And, even more recently, the stoic fortitude with
which the nearly 170 passengers and crew aboard the hijacked plane showed
how we are capable of the highest endurance, calm, fortitude and human
care. But we do not have to reserve our best qualities for national or
natural calamities; they should manifest themselves in our daily life.
The Biblical exhortation 'Do not do unto others what thou wouldst not
others do unto thyself' was anticipated by Vyasa in his words (Aatmanaha
pratikulaani pareshaam na samaacharet) The world watches us with a combination
of admiration and concern: admiration at what we have achieved despite
great odds, and concern over the fact that, even with great investments
of money and energy we remain far from our goal. Indians do well, they
say; India does not. We must examine the import of that observation and
try to rectify the situation. Of course the rest of the world, too, is
faced by crises. The end of the cold war has not ended all conflicts,
it has only changed its character. Even as we want equality amongst ourselves,
so do we want equality among the nations of the world. This does not and
cannot mean that all countries have the same of everything. But it does
mean that no nation or continent can seek overlordship over others claiming
political, economic, technological or strategic superiority. We are privileged,
as Indians, to have played a leading role in the decolonizing of the mighty
continents of Asia and Africa. We are the initiators of the concept of
non-alignment in a world when it was bitterly divided by Cold War, and
whether the great powers now recognize or not the role of non-alignment
in ending the Cold War, the fact of its contribution remains for all to
see. And we are also co-authors with the People's Republic of China of
the Five Principles of peaceful co-existence which provide the world a
code of conduct in international relations. The principles like the respect
for the territorial integrity and independence of nations, non-interference
in their internal matters and mutual benefit and equality are precious
concepts which cannot become redundant in a world of globalisation. We
are privileged also to be playing a role to see that in the new millennium
all the nations of the world, enjoy the same political status and have
a level playing field, economically and technologically.
This will be
our endeavour in all the world bodies of which we are proud to be members
or associated with -- the United Nations, the Commonwealth, the Non-Aligned
Movement and the new formations such as the WTO and important regional
groupings like ASEAN, SAARC, the Indian Ocean Rim Association. We are
proud to belong to South Asia and to the Asian Continent. We celebrate
this year the 50th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations
with China. We wish that country and its people every happiness. We want
to live in peace with Pakistan. We want the relations to conform to the
best traditions of good neighbourliness, eschewing terrorist interventions
and the propaganda of hatred. In the spirit in which Jawaharlal Nehru
declared in the Constituent Assembly,
I take this opportunity to send
greetings to all our immediate neighbours, to the sister continent of
Africa, the Commonwealth of Nations, the European Union, the United States
of America and Latin America, to Japan, and to the Arab nations and the
countries of the Pacific and Central Asia with whom we have traditional
ties of friendship. To Russia with which our political, economic, cultural
and strategic relations remain strong we reiterate our fraternal goodwill.
I once again extend my greetings to all fellow citizens. May all of us
cross the golden milestone and march along the vision of the founding
fathers of our Republic.
Thank you
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