I am delighted to be here this afternoon to unveil the statue of the late Maharaja Sri Chitra Tirunal.  As someone who grew up as a subject of the Maharaja, I am immensely honoured to have been given the privilege of unveiling the statue.

Sri Chitra Tirunal was one of the real kings as Mr.  Palkhiwala described him.  But a king, who was, above all, a wonderful human being.  In my student days, I have witnessed many political movements, many agitations in the state of Travancore which shook the state but nothing of it ever touched the Maharaja, or his status, his position and his reputation.  It was one of his remarkable achievements that though he lived through a stormy period of the history of Travancore, he always stood above the storms and he was respected and honoured by the people, though as ruler of the State he was, in a way, involved in those storms.  I think that was because he was, above all, a great human being, who had the common touch.  In our country, we have seen from the days of the Buddha, Ashoka and Mahatma Gandhi that how, men occupying the highest positions in society or in Government, are almost deified as Gods if they have the common touch.  Maharaja Sri Chitra Tirunal had this human quality of being a Maharaja and at the same time, being one of the people he governed.  Though, I was one of the subjects, I never had the privilege of meeting him personally face to face.  I had only seen him as a student standing on the roadside, when every morning he went to the Sri Padamnabha Swami Temple.  Thereafter, most of the time I was either out of Travancore or abroad.  So I never had the honour of meeting the Maharaja personally.

What I recall is that above everythying else one thing stood out in his career viz., the famous temple entry proclamation of 1936.  When Mahatma Gandhi visited Travancore for the first time, the Sri Chitra Tirunal was only nine years old and Gandhiji asked him, "Will you open the temples to the untouchables, when you assume power?" Unhesitatingly, he replied, "Certainly I will" .  And that is what he did.  Today, this might not look so revolutionary.  But, I think that among the various developments which contributed to progressive social development of Kerala, this temple entry proclamation was one of the foremost.  The Maharaja's attitude as a ruler was exemplified when he was asked to sign allegiance to the Indian Constitution by Shri V.P.  Menon.  He said, "I am very willing to do so but I have one problem.  The rulers, the Maharajas of Travancore, owe their allegiance to Shri Padamnabha.  So how I can owe allegiance to anyone else." Of course, Shri Menon found a very pragmatic formula to overcome this and it was thus that the Maharaja finally signed the accession to the newly independent India.

The Maharaja was a wonderful institution builder.  He was responsible for the Travancore University and innumberable modern industries in the State. Of all the institutions that he built, I think, this institution of Shri Chitra Tirunal Medical Science and Technology is one of the most important.  I should also, on this occasion, recall his Chief Minister at that time who helped him in building this institute, the late Shri Achuta Menon.  They together built up a series of institutions in Travancore to begin with and in the new state of Kerala which made this State modern and which were really responsible for the present social, educational, scientific and industrial development of Kerala.

I recall that at the time of founding this Institute, the Maharaja described it as a convergence of medical science and technology.  This was a new concept, a concept which was put into practice by the great Director, who is laying down his charge today, Dr.M.S.  Valiathan.  In Dr.  Valiathan, Kerala has been extremely fortunate in having a philosopher ‑scientist and also a philosopher‑technologist who presided over this Institute and built it up not just as a research centre, not just as a hospital, but something that combined medical science and modern technology and also linked it with a social purpose and with the needs of the society.  We have been talking about how we should link up science and technology with industry.  But very few have really succeeded in making this vital linkage.  But he succeeded in it not only as a scientist, but as a person who had a very acute entrepreneurial sense without being an entrepreneur himself.  How Dr.  Valiathan linked some of the basic research programmes of this Institute with industry is a remarkable story, something which can be an example for the rest of India.  In fact, the Ministry of which Shri Bhuvnesh Chaturvedi is now incharge, has been struggling with this idea for a long time.  But it is yet to be realised. Incidentally, may I say here, it may be an accident, that I have on this podium one of my distinguished predecessors in the one capacity and, one of my distinguished successors in another.  I had the formidable task of following Mr.  Nani Palkhiwala as Ambassador in the United States.  Wherever I went, in U.S.A.  at first people used to talk about him and about his eloquence, be it at universities or other institutions.  And Mr.  Bhuvensh Chaturvedi is one of my successors in the Ministry of Science & Technology.  Therefore it is an unique experience for me to be here and talk in the presence of a predecessor and a successor.

 The marriage of science and technology with industry and making both relevant to social needs is one of the challenging tasks facing science and technology in India.  Michael Faraday, when he invented electro‑magnetism, demonstrated it before a group of distinguished British citizens including Members of Parliament.  Everybody was wonderstruck by this transmission of electricity through a coil of wires.  But one of the Members of Parliament, as politicians always do, asked him what was the use of it.  Michael Faraday answered that years from now will be able to tax products made out of this invention!  The Member of Parliament was deeply satisfied!!  This is really what many people ask in India.  What is the use of science and technology? Great things are being done in the laboratories, but how is it going to be of use to anyone.  That question has been partially answered, at least answered in principle, by the achievements of Dr.  Valiathan at this Institute.  The blood bag and the heart valve that have been developed here are one of the finest in the world, technologically, and they have been now recognised not only in India but by sophisticated scientific medical institutions abroad. The blood bag has not only been developed here, but it has been productionised.  Dr.  Valiathan had chosen the right industrialists to do it. This practicality as well as originality which he has shown is what has made me to describe him as a philosopher‑scientist.  On the occasion that he is laying down his directorship here, I should join you all in paying a tribute to the immense contribution that he has made to this institution, to Kerala and to India.  He is now going to take up some very important new assignment. I am sure that with all the freedom that he will get at the vibrant private enterprise in Manipal, he will be able to do useful and remarkable things for science and technology, for education and development.  I should also like on this occasion to wish all the best and every success to his successor Dr. Mohandas.

The scientists in India have to bear a very great burden.  It is not enough that they do their scientific or technological work, however, original that work may be.  It is also part of their duty to disseminate this knowledge and this technology in society as a whole.  The Noble Prize winning scientist, Dr.  Abdus Salam, once said that in developing countries scientists should involve themselves in first rate scientific as well as technological extension work.  He said that it is an additional cross that a scientist in a developing country has to bear.  He has to promote extension work so that scientific knowhow is not merely generated but it is practicalised for the benefit of society at large.  Sri Chitra Tirunal Institute of Medical Science and Technology has demonstrated that it is possible for scientists and for high level technologists to indulge in this kind of extension work in society and interact with industry and with the universities.  I do hope on this occasion, while we are paying homage to the Maharaja who has founded this Institute, this Institute will re‑dedicate itself to the goal of excellence and, at the same time, to the dissemination of medical science and technology among the people.

I read the other day a speech that Dr.  Valiathan made at Bangalore. It was his Gandhi Memorial Lecture at the Raman Institute.  I thought there would be lot of high falutin science in it.  But I found that entire lecture was devoted to Charaka, entirely devoted to Ayurveda.  It was a fascinating picture.  That reminds me to emphasise again the philosophic aspect of the personality of the Director who is laying down his charge today.  He has brought us back to Ayurveda, to India's basic heritage and its philosophy.  He has pointed out how it is important for us to adopt that holistic approach in medicine so that medicine would be a service to the people.  This Institute is dedicated to the science of medicine, and to the service of the people.Here scientists, doctors, para‑medical personnel all work together in harmony and with a sense of social purpose for the benefit of the people.  That was the objective the Maharaja had in mind.  On this occasion, I should like to pay my own homage to this great founder‑Maharaja and wish this creation of his every success in future. 

Thank you very much.