Speech delivered by His Excellency Mr. Prabhu Dayal, Ambassador of India to Kuwait on the occasion of the 8th death anniversary of the late Shri Rajiv Gandhi, former Prime Minister of India on May 21st,1999
Prof. P.J. Kurien, Mr. Markos Williams, distinguished ladies and gentlemen.
I feel privileged and honored to be addressing you at today's solemn function which has been organized to mark the eighth death anniversary of late Shri Rajiv Gandhi, former Prime Minister of India. The importance of today's function can be gauged from the fact that Mrs. Sonia Gandhi has specially deputed Prof. P.J. Kurien to attend this function and to address us. Prof. P.J. Kurien is a former Central Minister and an eminent associate of late Shri Rajiv Gandhi. Therefore, at the outset I would like to congratulate Mr. Markos Williams and the members of the Rajiv Gandhi Awards Committee for arranging today's function to pay tribute to one of India's greatest sons.
As you are aware, Shri Rajiv Gandhi became the youngest Prime Minister of India on 31st October 1984, after the assassination of Prime Minister Smt. Indira Gandhi, his mother. He was 40 years old. In that hour of personal and national grief, he took up the challenge of leadership, and gave himself completely to the task of healing a wounded nation. Two months later, the people of India gave him the largest electoral mandate since India's Independence.
Shri Rajiv Gandhi's years as Prime Minister (October 1984 to November 1989) were a period of rapid progress and change. He brought peace and reconciliation to many parts of the country where confrontation and violence and prevailed. To break the back of poverty, he initiated new programs to create employment and harness science and technology to the service of the poor. To give people power over their own destinies, he launched political reform and conceived of new institutions for decentralization of decision making power and strengthening local self-government through what is known in India as the Panchayati Raj system. To fight backwardness, he charted new approaches in literacy, education and culture. He believed that all Indians, whatever their religion, caste or language, were equal and entitled to shape their lives and to realize their full potential, free from hunger, deprivation and fear.
Shri Rajiv Gandhi regarded the world as one human family. As at home, he worked tirelessly for equality and fairness in the international community. He was a forceful advocate of non-alignment, non-violence and disarmament, a crusader against racial discrimination, an environmental campaigner and a strong voice for the rights of the developing countries.
Shri Rajiv Gandhi will always have a place in history as a great visionary. In this regard, he followed the footsteps of his grandfather Shri Jawaharlal Nehru and his mother Smt. Indira Gandhi. Shri Rajiv Gandhi's vision of India is powerfully projected in his own words, and I quote :
Let us build an India proud of her Independence; powerful in defence of her freedom; strong, self reliant in agriculture, industry and front-rank technology. United by bonds transcending barriers of caste, creed and religion . Liberated from the bondage of poverty, and of social and economic inequality; an India - disciplined and efficient; fortified by ethical and spiritual values; a fearless force for peace on earth; the school of the world, blending the inner repose of the spirit with material progress; A new civilization, with the strength of our heritage, the creativity of the aspiring time of youth and the unconquerable spirit of our people.
Shri Rajiv Gandhi was a great believer in the principle of secularism, which he said was the bedrock of India's nationhood. He believed that it implies more than tolerance; it involves a collective effort for harmony. He was aware that vested interests, both external and internal were inciting and exploiting communal passions and violence to divide India, but he was confident that the combined might of the people and government would thwart their designs. He laid great emphasis on the unity and integrity of our national and said. "There is only one India. It belongs to all of us".
Soon after taking over as Prime Minister, he had spelt out his commitment to strive for the removal of poverty. He emphasized that the speedy removal of poverty would be his basic objective, and that his government would remain unwavering in its resolve to improve the living and working conditions of the scheduled castes, tribes, backward classes, artisans, agricultural labour, women and the urban poor. His belief was that India's greatest wealth is its people, who must be enabled to realize their potential to the full. For this reason, he always laid stress on programs of family planning, nutrition, welfare of women and children, control of disease, elementary and adult education, sports and better communications.
In the same context, he always remained committed to improve the quality of service to the people. He never wavered in this objective, always emphasizing to those involved in this task that no quarter would be given to the corrupt, the lazy and the inefficient. He was emphatic that our administrative system must become more goal-oriented and that a new work ethic, a new work culture must be evolved in which government is result bound and not procedure bound. As he said; "A strong concern for efficiency must permeate all institutions".
Shri Rajiv Gandhi's vision also encompassed the need for re-structuring our educational system and harnessing science and technology to the optimum level. He felt that our educational system needs to be re-structured as a dynamic force for national growth and integration. Immediately after taking over, he announced his intention to initiate a comprehensive review of the system and to build a national consensus for reform. It was under him that the Ministry of Human Resource Development was created. Aware that his mother Smt. Indira Gandhi had a fine friendship with scientists, who helped the nation, he pledged to keep up this interaction. At the same time, he underlined the fact that the creative arts give to life the vision of inner truth and beauty and that India has to conserve its priceless heritage and to create an environment in which art would flourish.
Shri Rajiv Gandhi was deeply cognizant of the fact that for nation building, the first requisite is peace - peace with our neighbors and peace in the world. He felt that today's environment had been vitiated and that sophisticated arms had been inducted on a large scale into our neighborhood and into the Indian Ocean. Therefore, he felt it necessary to make the government do all it could for the modernization of defense and the welfare of our service personnel. At the same time, he also made it clear that India would continue its work for international peace, friendship and cooperation. He strove to carry forward the foreign policy which had been bequeathed to him by Shri Jawaharlal Nehru and Smt. Indira Gandhi. In this regard, he re-affirmed India's adherence to the United Nations and the Non-aligned Movement as also its opposition to colonialism, old or new. As regards India's immediate neighbors, he emphasized his resolve to develop closer relations with each one of them in a spirit of peace, friendship and co-operation. His foreign policy objectives encompassed his concept of common regional development of South Asia, and for this reason, he took the initiative of setting up a SAARC (South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation) initiative. At the same time, he sought to promote cordial relations with all major powers and build multi-faceted relations with all of them. He emphasized the need to seek a satisfactory solution tour problems with China and it was under his stewardship that our relations with China began to show considerable improvement. As regards the Soviet Union, he stressed that he attached great value to the wide ranging and time tested relationship with that country based on mutual cooperation, friendship and vital support when most needed. With the United States of America, he sought to develop a multi-faceted relationship, and attached importance to our economic, technological and cultural cooperation. His visit to the United States in the summer of 1985 was a land mark in our bilateral relations, and the huge welcome which he received in that country is still etched in the minds of the people of both countries. President Ronald Reagan was so moved on the occasion that he said "Mr. Prime Minister, on this your new voyage of discovery, you will find a deep well of affection and respect for India and its people. You will sense America's admiration for India's strength in overcoming adversaries. Regan was so impressed with Shri Rajiv Gandhi that he said "You will also discover that the United States remains steadfastly dedicated to India's unity and that we firmly oppose those who would undermine it". Shri Rajiv Gandhi's response was summed up by him in the following words; "The United States and India have been developing a tradition of working together. If my visit strengthens that tradition, it will have given further substance to what is in any case one of the most important and one of the pleasantly rewarding of journeys". He was invited to address the US Congress and he made a stirring speech. Taking the cue from Martin Luther King's famous speech, Shri Rajiv Gandhi said, "I dream of an India, strong, independent, self-reliant and in the front rank of the nations of the world in the service of the mankind. I am committed to realizing that dream through dedication, hard work and the collective determination of our people".
Thus, Shri Rajiv Gandhi's vision of India's foreign policy involved friendship with both the East and the West and he emphasized that he wanted better relations with them as also between them. At the same time, he assured the peoples of other regions - the Arab world, South West and South East Asia, the Far East and the Pacific, Africa, Latin America, Caribbeans and the Western and Eastern Europe that he was keen on strengthening political and economic relations with them.
Shri Rajiv Gandhi will always be remembered for the famous six-nation initiative for safeguarding international peace and order which he launched alongwith the Presidents of Argentina, Mexico and Tanzania and the Prime Ministers of Greece and Sweden. In his address at the Six-Nation Summit on Nuclear Disarmament in New Delhi on January 28, 1985 he said: "What brings us together is mankind's highest cause today or ever - namely peace. We represent not only our own peoples but the constituency of peace which embraces continents and countries and includes vast million even within nuclear weapons countries. We reflect humanity's passionate conviction that the Earth shall live. That is our mandate". The six-nation initiative called upon nuclear weapons powers to halt the arms race and t put into effect a program for the cessation of the testing, production and deployment of nuclear weapons and their delivery systems. It also asked the super powers to prevent an arms race in outer space. In this context Shri Rajiv Gandhi stressed that the survival of the human race depends on the de-militarization of the world and keeping outer space free of weapons. He recalled Mahatma Gandhi's poignant words "The bomb will not be destroyed by counter bombs even as violence cannot be by counter violence". His dynamic role in the six-nation initiative was widely praised and acknowledged and the moral pressure that he was able to exert on the super powers, was responsible to a large extent to the progress achieved in the disarmament area around that time.
Summing up, therefore, Shri Rajiv Gandhi was a statesman and a visionary - one of the greatest of our time. His vision encompassed a better future for humanity and he struggled against all odds to translate his vision into reality. Today, on his death anniversary, we pay tribute to a statesman who tried to make the world a better place for everyone. And we as Indians also pay tribute to a leader who took nation building as a serious exercise involving one and all and not just for meeting the needs of the present but of the distant future too. Nothing brings out this fact than his words, and I quote : "As we build today so will be the tomorrow. Together we will build for an India of the 21st century. Together we will transform what needs transformation. Together we will face challenges and obstacles to progress. Together we will create an India that is strong, wise and great - a flame of peace and tolerance".
