Former President of India : K R Narayanana

ADDRESS OF SHRI K.R. NARAYANAN, VICE PRESIDENT OF INDIA, ON THE OCCASION OF THE UNVEILING OF THE STATUE OF LATE SMT. INDIRA GANDHI AT PARLIAMENT HOUSE

SATURDAY, JANUARY 27, 1996

Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, while he was sentenced to his first term of imprisonment, told the British judge what could be greater happiness than to be sent to jail for the freedom of India, unless it is to die for the sake of the dear motherland. His daughter, Indira Gandhi, lived and died for India wishing that every drop of her blood would nourish the soil of India. Her son, Rajiv Gandhi, sacrificed his young life, a life of full of hope, promise and achievement, in the service of India. To make India strong, prosperous and occupy an honoured place in the comity of nations was the main mission of all the three generations of leaders. Indira Gandhi's life, and her politics, economics and foreign policy, were dedicated to this over-riding objective. During the sixteen years of her stewardship of the nation she consolidated the unity of the country, built up its economic strength and its international position into that of a major power in Asia and a force for peace in the world.

Indira Gandhi inherited a world view and a vision of India from her father. But she pursued these, in changing circumstances and in the face of new challenges, with originality and intense pragmatism. Economic and social modernization of India and the abolition of poverty and deprivation for its millions of people was a consuming passion for Indira Gandhi. While adhering with conviction to the basic policies laid down, soon after assuming Prime Ministership, she sensed that the Indian economy had grown and matured, and certain changes were called for in the new stage of economic and technological development. She realized that economic administrative reforms and reforms in the management of trade, financial affairs, and public enterprises were required in the new stage.

The high-powered Committees she set up in these fields were the first serious exercises in the deregulation and liberalization of the Indian economy which resulted in the launching the economic reforms of 1981. Smt. Gandhi said: "We have come to a stage in our economic development, where, the entire modality of doing investment in specified channels have to be reviewed", and that "time has come for a new policy framework that emphasizes efficiency, competition and modernization". Perceptive foreign observers at that time had taken note of the changes that were taking place in India's economy. "The implications of the new strategy are staggering", said Mr. Orville Freeman, Chairman of Business International of the United States, "If pursued steadily and vigorously, it could propel India's take-off into the ranks of the major economic powers, not in some distant future, but in the foreseeable future". We are to-day pursuing that policy projecting India as a major economic-power in the making.

Together with the first cautious efforts at economic reforms and liberalization Indira Gandhi has bequeathed to us an infrastructure of socio-economic reforms and a mechanism for abolishing poverty and uplifting the standards of living of our deprived millions which have become to-day an integral part of India's liberalization programme. Indira Gandhi's Garibi Hatao slogan, with its 20-point programme and schemes like IRDP, RLEGP and NREP have been systematized and revamped to become the social safety net that is the indispensable accompaniment to our ambitious liberalisation policy to-day. This is a contribution of strategic importance by Indira Gandhi to the modernization and transformation of India's economy and society.

Indira Gandhi had understood the crucial importance of science and technology to India's development. The Editors of "Nature" once described her as "the heroine of Indian science". She had emphasized the importance of applying science for the solution of India's economic problems, especially in the field of rural development and the abolition of the poverty of the people. The Green Revolution which took place in her time and under her inspiration was a spectacular achievement in the application of science and technology anywhere in the developing world. But she did not neglect sophisticated and forward-looking scientific developments. The advances India made in the field of space sciences and atomic energy remain a monument to her visionary leadership. Particularly the peaceful nuclear explosion conducted under her leadership in 1974 stands out as a great scientific feat and as an act of political courage which is of historic importance for India and the world.

Indira Gandhi's contribution to India's international position and to peace and development in the world has been acclaimed everywhere. It was she who breathed new life and dynamism into the nonaligned movement and sought to make it "the biggest peace movement" in the world. It was she who broke the deadlock with our great neighbour China by establishing in 1976 Ambassadorial relations with China after a lapse of fifteen years. It was she who took the initiative in breaking the ice with the United States and established cordial relations with the Reagan Administration. And it was she who had the courage to intervene when democracy and human rights were brutally suppressed in East Pakistan and to help in the liberation of Bangladesh. It was Indira Gandhi who had the far-sighted vision and statesmanship to conclude a generous peace agreement with Pakistan at Shimla, thereby giving a chance to civilian and democratic rule to sustain itself in Pakistan.

Indira Gandhi's contributions to India, the Indian sub-continent and to the world were of far-reaching importance. An intensely practical politician, her vision also soared above immediate compulsions and considerations, and above narrow national interests into the realms of the future of humanity and the universe. She was a great and pioneering environmentalist. Mr. Maurice Strong called her "the first planetary figure".

I have great honour to participate in paying my humble tribute to a great world leader and to a great and proud Indian who gave her life for India.

Thank you

Jai Hind

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