 TEXT OF FINANCE MINISTER'S
 EXTEMPORE SPEECH AT THE
 INAUGURATION

Shri Shakdherji, Shri Giri, Shri Veera Raghavanji, Prof. Khandelwal, Fr. KunnUnkal, distinguished ladies and gentlemen: I am very grateful to my fellow colleague, Shri Veera Raghavan for having given me this rare opportunity to interact with such a powerful group of educationists particularly when they are discussing a subject, which I believe, is of great importance to our survival and our progress as the United, cohesive, and prosperous nation. Our country has made great progress since Independence. Our economic and social life has witnessed very significant transforma- tion even though millions of people still live below the poverty line, and we have still not been able to get rid of the ancient culture of poverty, ignorance and disease Which still inflicts millions and millions of our people. Thanks to the progress in modern science and technology. I am convinced it is possible today in human history as never before that chronic poverty does not have to be inevitable lot of a majority of human kind. Poverty eradication will give our people all opportunities for diving a life of dignity and self-respect. I think, it is a feasible goal, First essential goal, of course, is that we must make use of all the scientific and technological knowledge that Is available today. That technological and economic frontiers are expanding at a rapid pace which was unthinkable only a decade ago. India has to equip herself, its children, with those who are in the process of learning to have the ambition to be satisfied with nothing but the very best. A commitment and pursuit of excellence has to be a hall- mark of the value system that we are going to have and we should impart to our student. But the type of India that we want to build, cannot be built merely on the basis of knowledge. T.S. Eliot somewhere say that knowledge is important but we all know that such a thing is wisdom and that comes only on the basis of a system in an atmosphere and environment in which basic moral values, the higher purpose of life can be understood by all concerned. It is the same thought that Swami Vivekananda has said talking about the role of education. Education is not the amount of information that is put into your brain and runs right there Undigested all Your life. We must have life building,, man making, character building,, accumulation of ideas. If you have assimilated five ideas which make life and character, we have more education than any man who got by reading all from the library.

Today India is at cross roads. I see our country under threshold of exciting new opportunities and I have already said that in a period of about 10 years poverty eradication can become a feasible and practical goal.

Our Government whatever the ideology it may adopt, needs large amount of resources to deal with problems of poverty, the disadvantaged groups, the disadvan-

taged citizens. It is a shame that even today universalisation of education is not a reality. It is a national shame even today after 4.7 years of the Independence the infant mortality rate in our country is as high as 80 per thousand. Now, we have to make up for the lost time that requires large amount of resources. Now how these resources would become available if people are not going to pay their taxes willingly and voluntarily. As Finance Minister for 4 1/2 years. I am convinced that fiscal deficits, the budget deficits that have become such an endemic feature of our national life would not be there if we train all our citizens to pay willingly and voluntarily the taxes that are due. In the same way we find the growing hold of smuggling. We are a multilingual country. Although there is a fundamental unity but we are a. country characterised by many religions. We are a country characterised of various sub-cultures which enrich the composite culture of India and therefore tolerance and indeed celebration of this diversity has to be an integral part of every Indian's thinking. Without unity, without integrity of our country, you cannot achieve any of the social and economic goals and yet you find attempt to divide our people on the basis of religions, to create conflicts among various religious groups.

As Iqbal said "Mazhab Nahin Sikhata Apas Mein bair Rakhna. Hindi Hain Ham Watan Hai Hindostan Hamara." We need an approach to living which therefore celebrates the diversity of India, the fundamental unity of all religions that a person can be a good Indian regardless of what religion, caste, creed or region to which he may belong. I feel it is very important that this basic aspect of tolerance and celebration of diversity of India should become an integral part of the value system that we impart to our children. We are a nation in transition trying to develop from under-developing economy to a prosperous modern nation claiming its rightful place in the committee of nations and these processes have never been anywhere else free of tensions, free of conflicts. The manner in which these conflicts and tensions will be resolved, will also be a major determinant and what happens to India in the 21st century which is now on the horizon. All over the world social, political, economic revolutions have been about sharing of values. The challenge before our country is to ensure that we can abolish this' grim poverty that prevails in our country. It is social and economic disparities that are associated with processes of development. That this process of free distribution is, I believe, essential to keep us as a cohesive nation. If we do not find ways and means of resolving these problems, conflicts, and tensions through peaceful mechanisms then again the future of our country will be in great turmoil. I say that terrorism today has an appeal for some of our youth. I think we will have to deal with this problem not merely as a law and order problem though the law-and order has to be enforced. Fundamentally we have to deal with the problems of social isolation, social exclusion which has been a feature of Indian life for centuries of deprived classes, of deprived religions, of deprived castes and sub-castes not getting fully integrated into the national mainstream and yet to do so without wonders and this can be done only if there is a respect for the. youth, there has to be concern for equity,

concern for fairness at the same time, concern that whatever problems exist, these have to be resolved through peaceful means. I think that has to be an integral part of our educational curriculum and an integral part of any system of modern values. In the same way in India today, we find a very slow pace of development. Environmental degradation today affects the livelihood and standard of living of millions of millions of our people. The degradation of our land and water sources is today a fact of life that exists in a country of ancient scriptures. The Vedas laid great emphasis on living in harmony with nature. If you do not take note of this environmental dimension, if sustainable development simply remains a password, and we do not operationalise this concern about sustainable development in our thought processes, in our life style, then again India's future will be a question mark. Therefore, what are our responsibilities as the citizens to preserve and protect the environment that is another important aspect of the core value system that our students, our younger generation must adopt. We see today growing of urbanisation. With urbanisation we find growing amount of violence, increasing violence against women, bride burning, dowery seeking. Not all this ultimately has roots in a value system that our society cherishes. There have been great periods in our national life who always held Sita as the ideal, as a source of inspiration but what is happening today in India in many ways is the violence against women. The finalisation of poverty, the fact that our women are not active participants in our development processes, and much emphasis has not been laid on the education of a girl child. When it comes to feeding their children in our own families, the girl child is neglected. When it comes to access to health care, our women suffer insights. Not all this happens because our core value system has not taken care of some of these things and if India is to become a front ranking nation, we have to include respect for women, equality of sexes and what goes with it in all respects as an integral part of a core value system. Similarly when it comes to dealing with India's place in the world, and I am not' making here a political point. I am making a point because it has great relevance to India's future. Whatever we may want to do India cannot isolate itself from the world today. We isolated ourselves from the rest of the world for one reason or the other when the western world experienced the First Industrial Revolution in the late 18th and the 19th centuries and when we saw the, consequences, the technology of those peaceful economic processes and technology of world, the west acquired a degree of superiority and that is how colonialism developed into such a mighty force. Thanks to the inspiring leadership of Gandhiji and all the sacrifices of our Freedom Fighters that we were able to shape up.

In the world of today science and technology has emerged as the major determinant of the power and wealth of nation. If India cuts itself from this, if Indian people are taught that they have to be satisfied with second class, third class goods that we, Indian, are somehow inherently inferior that we cannot look the Whiteman straight in the face, I think we would be inflicting a serious damage on the future evolution of India's economy and polity and I say with all sincerity that our students must be taught

that we have a great deal to learn as Gandhiji used to say the spirits has to be we must keep our house open on all sides, let the winds of all the world, good ideas blow into it but we should not be blown up by our future. That is the true meaning of self- reliance in the increasingly inter-dependent world that we live in. As Indians we must develop our personalities, our characters, Our economy our polity that we can look everybody else in the world straight in the face. We have made a great progress. But it is also a fact that 47 years after Independence every year the Finance Ministers of India go abroad seeking aid. We must get rid of that mentality and the only way to get rid of that mentality is to develop, I think, our own capabilities. Our young people must have the self-spirit of self-confidence, Indians are second to none. I see it every where. In America when I see what excellent 'work India's scientists and India's technologists, India's educationists do and why they do have to go right to the United States to prove that Indian people are second to none. We have to create an environment in our country, an environment which prices excellence and environment at the same time, emphasises on social equality; concerned with the problem of the under privileged and deprived. it is only then we can build in our country a strong, prosperous and cohesive nation. Today in India's political life, there is a great deal, great talk of corruption-some real, some imaginative and if this process is not checked, peoples' faith in political processes as a purposeful instrument of social change will be eroded and I think that is dangerous in our country. That is where fascisms can really become I think a real sect to our nation's democracy. We have to clean up our national life and in the final analysis although it requires lot of economic reforms, political reforms but the ultimate defence of democracy must rest in the minds of our people. If we cherish the values of living in a free democratic polity that there are certain norms, the Constitution of India emphasises the rights of our citizens. But there have also to be a recognition that to operate a democracy, there are certain important responsibilities of citizens. I talk about that commitment to secularism, respect for diversity, tolerance and celebration of India's diversity, commitment to excellence as well as commitment to social equity. But if the belief that everything is fair in love and in war also applies to politics, then I feel we will move towards further degradation Of our national life. Therefore, it is essential that political life in our country should also be imbued with a higher sense of national purpose, a higher sense of national destiny. We have great traditions, we have seen in this country in our times what a towering personality, what great teaching Gandhiji left for us in this regard. Our students need to be told constantly that howsoever noble your ends if you pursue unfair means to achieve those ends that affects the purity of ends and if this thing gets better into thinking of our youth, I am quite sure ultimately it will seep into our political processes and economic processes. People who produce pharmaceuticals, do not hesitate to produce sub-standard pharmaceuticals which may kill innocent patients who may be using them. So all these criminal activities whether in political or economic life, they have to be dealt with as law and order problem but the ultimate

defence of democracy against the over-powering influence of crossmaterialism is in the minds of our people and it is here where value education assumes great importance. I conclude by saying that we need a core system of values which combines this twin commitments to excellences and social equity which celebrates India's diversity, which recognises the role of tolerance, which recognises the role of peaceful resolution of social, economic and political tensions and conflicts which are built into the body polity of a poor country trying to modernise itself. We need a core values system which recognises that India has all the resources, material, moral and human to be a front ranking nation of the world and therefore all those who play on the tune of the foreigners who want to convert our people to the belief that somehow we are inferior, we cannot face her to the challenge of global competition. I think it is great service. I am not making a political point. I think it is very essential that our children must grow up being self-respect children, not being afraid of participating in the global processes but taking of full advantage of that and accepting our full obligation as responsible citizens of the new inter-dependent world, the global village as the speaker before me has described the state of world. The world is still essentially a power relationship. India has to require political, economic and moral clout to realise its destiny to play its rightful role in the committee of nations and in all these processes the role of teachers is crucial, the type of education, the type of lives that they will live themselves and the type of education that they will impart to the youth of our country is going to determine the future of our country. When I see all these complaints about mass copying, when I see all the degradations that have come about even in the educational system, it is probably a reflection of what is happening in the nation's political life, nation's economic life but somewhere we have to make a new beginning and I can think of no better place to make a new beginning than to begin with reforms of our educational system to, bring back to education the old ideals that the Gurukul concept placed before us. The training for life, the training for character building, living, helping all our children to lead a life of dignity and self-respect and that is what I feel, the role of sound system of moral education, value education is a great importance. I have great pleasure in inaugurating this Seminar and I sincerely hope that your deliberations will not only be light bearing but also fruit bearing.

Thank you.

TEXT OF FINANCE MINISTER'S EXTEMPORE SPEECH AT THE INAUGURATION