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Prime Minister Speaks
PM Manmohan Singh spoke to the nation from the Lal
Qila yesterday on August 15 on the auspicious
occasion of the 65th Independence Day. It was a
traditional speech by the PM which has become a
yearly ritual. But this year, I noticed some
departures from the traditions. I thought of sharing
it with the readers of this lay man's blog.
PM mentioned and referred to almost all important
issues and developments like corruption, price rise,
terrorism. social inequalities, farmers and land
issues, state of the economy, media etc. He also
asserted that India has come a long way but still to
go a much longer way. It was normal to report to the
people the 'state of the nation' at this important
occasion. There were two important and significant
departures in the speech: i) there was no mention of
foreign policy - it was a good skip particularly in
the wake of ongoing internal problems of corruption
and many other internal issues engaging the
attention of the country. I think, foreign policy of
any country, is the extension of its internal
situation. It is important to set the house in order
and foreign policy will flow from that. Anna Hazares,
Baba Ramdevs and the self appointed spokespersons of
the so called Civil Society shall consider and heed
to PM Manmohan Singh who said, inter alia, in his
Independence Day speech " The road ahead is long and
arduous. Particularly, the prevailing situation both
inside and outside the country is such that if we do
not act with understanding and restraint, our
security and prosperity can get adversely affected."
and ii) there was no mention of any other national
or international personality or quote from their
utterances - I think it was a pleasant departure.PM
rightly said " We should also have faith that our
democracy, our
 institutions
and our social ideals and values have the capacity
to deal with any difficulty. We should all have
faith in ourselves. The faith that we can build a
promising future for ourselves. The faith, that
united we can do the most difficult of tasks. Let us
all resolve to build a bright future for our country
" May be he has in mind the famous couplet of Dr.
Iqbal:
जरा
देख
जो
कुछ
हो
रहा
है
होने
वाला
है,
भला
रखा
क्या
है
अहेदे
कुहन
की
दस्तानो
में
!
By. Mr. Ramesh Chander, Retired Indian Diplomat |
