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Pranab warns Pakistan, hails Indian youth and woman
Friday January 25, 2013 11:17:46 PM,
IANS
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 Complete Text of President's Republic Day address
India has changed more in last six decades than in six previous
centuries. This is neither accidental nor providential; history
shifts its pace when touched by vision. The great dream of raising
a new India from the ashes of colonialism reached »
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New Delhi:
In his maiden Republic Day eve speech, President Pranab Mukherjee
warned Pakistan not to take India's friendship for granted, hailed
the spirit of the Indian youth and said brutalizing women amounted
to wounding "the soul of our civilization".
In a crisp speech laced with his trademark intellect, the
president referred to the numerous doubts and problems plaguing
the world's largest democracy but predicted a bright future for
India.
"On our 64th Republic Day, there may be some reason for concern
but none for despair," said the veteran politician who became the
head of state in July 2012.
"If India has changed more in six decades than six previous
centuries, then I promise you that it will change more in the next
10 years than in the previous sixty," he said. "India's enduring
vitality is at work."
Without naming Pakistan, the president spoke of "serious
atrocities" committed on Indian troops on the Jammu and Kashmir
border -- an obvious reference to the brutal killing of two Indian
soldiers by Pakistanis.
"Neighbours may have disagreements; tension can be a subtext of
frontiers. But sponsorship of terrorism through non-state actors
is a matter of deep concern to the entire nation.
"We believe in peace on the border and are always ready to offer a
hand in the hope of friendship. But this hand should not be taken
for granted."
Mukherjee spoke about the Dec 16 rape and murder of a young woman
in Delhi, calling the 23-year-old a "symbol of all that new India
strives to be".
Her death, he said, "has left our hearts empty and our minds in
turmoil. We lost more than a valuable life; we lost a dream. If
today young Indians feel outraged, can we blame our youth?"
The president said that while there was a law of the land, "there
is also a higher law" when it came to women.
"The sanctity of a woman is a directive principle of that larger
edifice called Indian civilization...
"Mother is our protection from evil and oppression, our symbol of
life and prosperity," he said. "When we brutalize a woman, we
wound the soul of our civilization."
The president said it was "time for the nation to reset its moral
compass... We must look deep into our conscience and find out
where we have faltered".
Mukherjee admitted that the Indian youth were today troubled by a
range of existential doubts.
"Does the system offer due reward for merit? Have the powerful
lost their Dharma in pursuit of greed? Has corruption overtaken
morality in public life? Does our legislature reflect emerging
India or does it need radical reforms?
"These doubts have to be set at rest. Elected representatives must
win back the confidence of the people. The anxiety and
restlessness of youth has to be channelised towards change with
speed, dignity and order."
The former finance minister underlined that the fruits of economic
growth should not become the monopoly of the privileged.
"As we move ahead on the path of economic reforms, we must remain
alive to the persisting problems of market-dependent economies.
"Many rich nations are now trapped by a culture of entitlement
without social obligations; we must avoid this trap."
Failure to do so could make Maoist violence "acquire far more
dangerous dimensions", he warned.
He spoke of India's many successes over the past six decades, the
vision of India's founding leaders and asked the civil society and
the government to work together for the country's betterment.
"India can double its growth rate by turning today's disadvantaged
into multiple engines of economic development," he said.
"Even the British," he said, "sensed that they were leaving a land
which was very different from the one they had occupied... The
spirit of India is written in stone."
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Picture of the Day |
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Pradeep sings “Ae Mere Watan Ke Logon” before prime minister
Jawaharlal Nehru at R.M. School, Mumbai, March 21, 1963. It is a song
that is sung on every patriotic occasion, had moved India's first
prime minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, to tears and its strong
morale-boosting words provided solace to a nation agonized by the
defeat in the 1962 India-China war. |
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