One Billion People: One Vision

Dear Citizens, on the eve of the 57th Republic Day of India, mygreetings to all of you in the country and those living abroad. I convey myspecial greetings, to the members of our Armed Forces and the ParamilitaryForces, who guard our frontiers on the land, the sea and the air and also thecentral and state level police including the other internal security forces. Iam also happy to inform that my government has decided to increase thepensionary benefits of JCOs and NCOs of our Armed Forces from 1st January 2006,which will benefit around 1.2 million pensioners.

Critical national needs

In today’s Republic Day address, I would like to share withyou two critical needs of our nation. One is about the national mission and itsprogress. The second is to protect our progress and further sustain the earningcapacity of individuals and people. For this, it is essential to increase theboundary conditions of our life, which comes out of our long cherishedcivilizational heritage. This is the time, we must launch and build-up anintensive and extensive movement of cherishing our value systems in all walks oflife. This is particularly important since the nation has to provide leadershipto the 540 million ignited minds of the youth who are the most powerful resourcefor translating our vision of transforming India into a developed nation, wellbefore 2020 in an integrated way.

Progressive Momentum towards National Missions

Friends, I have visited all the States and Union Territories andhave addressed the Members of Parliament and a number of State Assemblies. Ihave met and interacted with over one million youth. I have met many spiritualleaders. In addition, I have addressed a number of Ministries, professionalbodies, educational and scientific institutions, industries, healthcareorganizations, judicial establishments, law enforcement agencies, Armed Forcesunits, media, non-governmental organizations, artists, creative personalities,rural people and many others. I have also interacted with differently abledpersons. In all my interactions with various constituents and specialists of thesociety, the prime focus of my communication was to present the linkages betweenthe particular institution and the goal of national development. These haveresulted in specific missions for the organizations and individuals convergingtowards Vision 2020. When I visited and interacted with different cross sectionsof the people at a later time, I have found several of these missions are beingtranslated into actions providing fruitful results.

For example, the interlinking of rivers has made a beginning inAndhra Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh. In Tamil Nadu, the State isconsidering creation of water ways connecting Palar, Kaveri, Vaigai andThamiraparani. I have seen and experienced the functioning of four operationalPURAs (Providing Urban Amenities in Rural Areas) namely Periyar PURA at Vallam,Tamil Nadu, Loni PURA in Maharashtra, Chitrakoot PURA in Madhya Pradesh andByrraju PURA in Bhimavaram, Andhra Pradesh. BAIF (Bharatiya Agro IndustriesFoundation) has brought a new dimension in rural and tribal development, throughempowering the rural people with know-how, technology and networks; for waterconservation, dairy development, fruit orchard and animal husbandry. Inaddition, Governments of Kerala, Chhattisgarh and Uttar Pradesh have taken upthe PURA missions in their respective States and have completed the planningprocess. In the 93rd Indian Science Congress, I have suggested to the Ministryof Rural Development to allocate Rs. 500 Cr. for initiation of 100 PURAclusters, each consisting of 20 to 30 villages across the country. Action isprogressing. Leadership for these PURA Clusters will be provided by the selectededucational institutions located in the respective rural areas. Chhattisgarh,Mizoram and Uttranchal have undertaken large scale plantation of Jatropha inboth Government and private lands to produce bio-fuel. I have seen a solar powerplant of 120 KW capacity in Kaylapara village in Sagar Island at Sundarbans inWest Bengal. This power plant along with a number of 20 to 30 KW plants issupplying six hours of electricity to 33 villages in the Sagar Island. This isgoing to be expanded to 150 villages very soon. Bangalore Municipal Corporationis in the process of implementing a 8 MW power plant using solid municipal wastethrough BOOT (Build, Own, Operate and Transfer) scheme. The power plant issimilar to what we have in Hyderabad and Vijayawada. India’s first virtualuniversity has been created by the three 150 year old universities namelyMadras, Mumbai and Calcutta. I have delivered the inaugural address for thisvirtual university and interacted with 15,000 students spread across the countrythrough EDUSAT using virtual tele-education delivery system. A VirtualUniversity by definition is meant to cut across the geographical andadministrative boundaries and provide the best of education. It is ourresponsibility to make it happen in the new environment. I have seen theaccelerated learning programme using computers in Karnataka Government schoolsin association with Azim Premji Foundation to reduce the dropouts. AkshayaComputer Literacy Programme of Kerala has made at least one member in eachfamily a computer literate in whole of Malapuram district of the State. Also, Isaw a high profile scientist after his retirement from Light Combat AircraftProgramme has taken up the mission of removing the illiteracy in his nativevillage Bour in Darbhanga district of Bihar. Jamsetji Tata Virtual Academy hasstarted the creation of Village Knowledge Centers using the selected fellows ofvirtual academy in association with M.S. Swaminathan Research Foundation. Iinteracted with a number of village knowledge centers established in differentparts of the country from Coimbatore and Hyderabad through EDUSAT connectivityand discussed the problem faced by the farmers, fisher folk and craftspersonnel. At Peda Amiram near Bhimavaram, I have visited an InternationalCancer Centre with all modern facilities for treatment of cancer patients. AtParumala in Kerala, the International Centre for Cardio Thoracic and VascularDiseases is providing specialized treatment to heart patients in rural areas. Ialso met 1000 physically challenged children wearing the light weight calipersat Nalgonda in Andhra Pradesh and most importantly the first and the 10,000thchild benefited from Defence Technology spin off. All these results indicatethat the development has started reaching certain parts of our rural areas. Whatdoes it all symbolize? The 5000 years old civilization is awakening to newtechnology and towards development. I can see that developed India is on therise.

In order to strengthen this process, scientists, technologists and healthcarespecialists have a special role to play.

Mission for Scientists and Technologists:

For the scientists and technologists of the nation, I have fiveimmediate national missions: (a). Increasing the Solar Photo Voltaic Cellefficiency from 14% to 45% using nano technology; (b). Research in proteomics toidentify the disease causing mechanism and to develop new methods to treatdiseases; (c). Earthquake forecasting using multiple parameter pre-cursors suchas pre-shock conditions and electromagnetic phenomena, prior to the finalrupture; (d). Building a validated mathematical model for predicting the quantumof rain for a particular cloud conditions in a particular region in a prescribedtime using the new type of Polarimetric radar and; (e). Developing the productsin the healthcare, electronics and materials to meet the national requirementsusing the convergence of nano, bio and info technologies.

Healthcare: Health care community should give highest priority fortreatment of HIV/AIDS and accelerate the development of effective anti-vaccinefor certain types of HIV before 2007, by networking with national andinternational institutions working in this area. They should integrate researchefforts of malaria, typhoid, and diarrhoeal disorders for facilitatingdevelopment of combination vaccine by 2007. Healthcare personnel, doctors,psychologists, researchers, pharmacologists, economists and environmentalistsshould all work together coherently towards the mission of providing good healthto all citizens of India and make the nation near disease free.

Bharat Nirman Programme: The Government has already launched the BharatNirman Programme with an outlay of Rs. 1,74,000 Crore for providing ruralinfrastructure within the next four years. This will facilitate the ruralprogramme like PURA to progress faster in an integrated way.

Awakening and change

These actions from multiple agencies spread across the countrygives me confidence that we are well on our way on the path of development andtransforming India into a developed nation before 2020. Every awakening andchange, bring with them certain responsibilities and a code of conduct.Therefore, we need to promote ethical values in all walks of life which willenable creation of synergy between establishments for realizing our dream ofseeing the smiles on the billion faces. Now I would like to discuss the need forimportant changes required in our mind-set.

Transparency starts from Home: On 21st November 2005, Ihad visited Adhichunchanagiri Math, attended a function of FUREC (Foundation forUnity of Religions and Enlightened Citizenship) and interacted with over 54,000students of various schools and colleges of Karnataka. There a 10th classstudent Bhavani studying in Adichunchanagiri Composite High School, Shimogaasked me the following question.

"Dear Sir, What is the role of students to stop corruption which is deeplyrooted in our county just like cancer?"

Agony of the young mind is reflected in this question. For me it was animportant question, since it comes from a young mind. I was thinking what typeof solutions we could give. My thought process was the following:

I said there are one billion people in the country and nearly 200 million homes.In general most of them are good people. However, if we find that people in fewmillion houses are not transparent and not amenable to the laws of the country,what can we do? These houses apart from parents have one daughter or one son orboth. If the parents in these houses are deviating from the transparent path thechildren can use the tool of love and affection and correct the parents to comeback to the right path. I asked all the children assembled in that gathering,whether parents of a few children get deviated from transparency, will youchildren boldly tell your parents, father or mother you are not doing the rightthing. That is what we are taught by you and in the school. Most of the childrenspontaneously responded, "We will do it". The confidence comes from themthat they have love as a tool. Similarly I have also asked the parents in someother meeting, initially there was a silence, later, many of them hesitantlyagreed that they would abide by the children’s suggestion since it is drivenby love. The children took an oath. The oath was "I will lead an honest lifefree from all corruption and will set an example for others to adopt atransparent way of life". Finally I told the students that they should start amovement starting from their home.

Gift extinguishes the dignity of human life

It was around 1940 and the Second World War was in progress. Atthat time Panchayat board elections took place in Rameswaram. My father waselected as Panchayat Board member and on the same day he was also elected as thePresident of Rameswaram Panchayat Board. Rameswaram Island is a beautiful placewith 20,000 populations at that time. They elected my father as Panchayat BoardPresident not because he belonged to a particular religion or a particular casteor particular language or for his economic status. He was elected only on thebasis of his being a good human being. I would like to narrate one incident thattook place on the day he was elected as President of Panchayat board.

I was a school boy at that time studying in fourth class inRameswaram Panchayat School. Those days we did not have electricity and we usedto study in kerosene lamp. I was reading the lessons loudly and I heard a knockon my door. We never used to lock the door in Rameswaram in those years. Somebody opened the door, came in and asked me where my father was? I told him thatfather had gone for Namaz for evening prayers. Then he said, I have broughtsomething for him, can I keep it there. Then since my father had gone for Namaz,I shouted for my mother to get her permission to receive the items. Since shewas also on the Namaz there was no response. I asked the person to leave theitems on the cot. After that I went for my studies.

I used to learn by reading aloud in my younger days. I wasreading loud and fully concentrating on my studies. At that time my fatherlanded and saw a tambalum kept in the cot. He asked me what is this? Who hasgiven that? I told him somebody came and has kept this for you. He opened thecover of the tambalum and found there was a costly dhoti, angawastram, somefruits and some sweets and he could see the slip that the person had leftbehind. I was the last son of my father, he really loved me and I also loved hima lot. This was the first time I saw him very angry and also this was the firsttime I had a beating by him. I got frightened and I was weeping. Then he touchedmy shoulder lovingly with affection and advised me not to receive any giftwithout his permission. It is not a good habit. Receiving gift with a purpose isa very dangerous thing in life. He quoted a verse from Hadith which means"Gifts accompany poisonous intentions". This lesson stands out prominentlyin my mind. This experience taught me a valuable lesson for my life.

I would like to mention the writings in Manu Smriti which warnsevery individual against accepting gifts given with the motive since it placesthe acceptor under an obligation in favour of the person who gave the gift.Ultimately it results in making a person to do things which are not permittedaccording to law, in order to favour the person who has given the gift.Therefore it is necessary that the quality of not yielding to attraction ofgifts and presents must be inculcated in individuals, so that he/she may developimmunity against the desire for receiving gifts. It is also said that byaccepting gifts the divine light in the person gets extinguished. I am sharingthis, with all of you particularly the young ones, to emphasize that, not to becarried away by any gift with a motive through which one loses his personalitygreatly. I will be very happy if you can practice this sincerely.

Mother gives principle of truth

Now, I will narrate to you a story surrounding the life of agreat saint Sheikh Abdul Qadir Al-Gelani which happened about one thousand yearsago. One day child Abdul Qadir heard a cow saying, "what are you doing here inthe grazing fields, it is not for this you have been created". He ran back tohis house feeling utterly terrified and climbed on to the roof of his house.From there he saw a large group of people returning from Arafat Mountain,thousands of miles away from his place in the neighbourhood of Mecca afterperforming Haj. Bewildered Abdul Qadir went to his mother and asked herpermission to make a journey to Baghdad in order to pursue a career inknowledge. Mother understood the divine call and promptly gave the permissionfor him to go. She gave him 40 gold coins which was his share he inherited fromhis father. She stitched these 40 gold coins inside the lining of his coat andgave him permission to leave. When she stepped out of the door to bid him afarewell, she said, "Oh, my son! You are going! I have detached myself fromyou for the sake of Allah knowing that I shall not see your face again until theday of last judgement. But take one advice from me. My son, you always feel thetruth, speak the truth and propagate the truth even when your life is atstake".

Abdul Qadir travelled with a small caravan heading for Baghdad.During the journey, when the caravan was passing through the tough terrains, agroup of robbers on horses suddenly attacked the caravan and started looting.None of them however took the slightest notice of Abdul Qadir, until one of thelooters turned to him and said. "You are here poor boy! Do you have anythingwith you? Abdul Qadir replied, "I have got 40 gold coins which are stitched bymy mother in the lining of my coat underneath my armpit." The looter smiledand thought that Abdul Qadir was just joking. He left him alone and movedelsewhere. When their leader came and the looters took this boy to their leaderand said to him, "A poor boy claims that he is in possession of 40 gold coins.We looted everybody but we have not touched him because we hardly believed thathe has got gold coins with him". Then the leader put the same question butAbdul Qadir replied the same. Then the leader ripped through his coat anddiscovered that he indeed got 40 gold coins inside the lining of his coat.

The astonished leader asked Abdul Qadir, what prompted him to make thisconfession? Abdul Qadir replied. "My mother made me promise to always betruthful even at the cost of my life. Here, it was a matter of only 40 Goldcoins. I promised her and never betrayed her trust, so I told the truth". Thelooters started weeping and said, you have adhered to the advice of your greatmother but we have been betraying the trust of our parents and the covenant ofour Creator for many years. From now onwards, you would become our leader in ourrepentance and they all decided to give up robbery and from that day, becamerighteous persons. Here the world saw the birth of a great saint, Shiek AbdulQadir Al-Gilani out of a message of truth a mother gave to her child. At thisjuncture, let me recall a Thirukkural composed by Poet Saint Thiruvalluvar, 2200years ago.

This means that "Truth in thinking and action will have apower higher than enduring Tapas and generous Charity.

Influence of Teacher: Mission of my life

I have talked to you many times about my primary school teacherShri Sivasubramanya Iyer. He was a great teacher and he imbibed in many of hisstudents a vision for future.