விழித்தெழு

Awakening Patriotic Outpour from our beloved

President

Dr. Abdul Kalam

“I have three visions for India: Freedom, Development and the Courage to Stand Up. In 3000 years our history, people from all over the world have invaded us, captured our lands and conquered our minds. From Alexander onwards to the Moghuls, the Portugese, the British, the French, the Dutch, all of them came and looted us. We have not conquered anyone. We have not grabbed their land, their culture, their history and tried to enforce our way of life on them.

Why? Because we respect freedom of others. That is why my first vision is that of FREEDOM. It is this freedom that we must protect and nurture and build upon. If we are not free, no one will respect us.

My second vision for India is DEVELOPMENT. For fifty years, we have been a developing nation. It is time we see ourselves as a developed nation. We are among the top five nations of the world in terms of GDP. Our achievements are globally recognized. Yet we lack the self-confidence to see ourselves as a self-reliant developed nation.

I have a third vision. India must Stand Up to the world. Otherwise, no one will respect us. Strength respects strength. We must be strong not only as a military power but also as an economic power. Both must go hand in hand.

Look at our ‘greats’. We are the first in milk production. We are first in Remote Sensing Satellites. We are second largest producer of wheat and rice. There are millions of such achievements. But our media is only obsessed with the bad news and disasters. Why are we in India so embarrassed to recognize our own strengths and achievements?

I was in Tel Aviv once, the day after a lot of attacks and deaths had taken place. The Hamas had struck. But the front page of the Israeli newspapers had the picture of someone, who in five years had transformed his desert land into an orchard and a granary. It was this inspiring picture that everyone woke up to. The gory details of killings were buried among other news. In India, we only read about death, sickness, terrorism and crime. Why is our media so NEGATIVE?

When I was giving this lecture, a 14-year old girl asked me for my autograph. I asked what her goal in life was. She replied, “I want to live in a developed India”. For her, you and I will have to build that developed India.

Allow me to come back to you. Got 10 minutes for your country?

YOU say that our government is inefficient. YOU say that our laws are too old. YOU say that the municipality does not pick up the garbage. YOU say that the phones don’t work. The railways are a joke, the airline is the worst in the world and mails never reach their destination. YOU say that our country has gone to the dogs and is in absolute pits. YOU say, say and say1

What do YOU do about it? Take a person on his way to Singapore. Give him a name – YOURS. And a face – YOURS. YOU walk out of the airport and you are at your international best. In Singapore, YOU don’t throw cigarette butts on the roads. YOU wouldn’t dare to eat in public during Ramadan in Dubai. YOU would not dare to go out without your head covered in Jeddaah. YOU wouldn’t dare to buy an employee of the telephone exchange in London at 10 pounds (Rs.650/-) a month to “see to it that my STD and ISD calls are billed to someone else”. YOU would not dare to speed beyond 88 kmph in Washington and then tell the traffic cop, “Jaantha hai sala main koun hoon? (Do you know who I am?) I am so and so’s son. Take your two bucks and get lost.”

Why don’t YOU spit Paan on the streets of Tokyo? Why don’t YOU buy fake certificates in Boston? We are still talking of the same YOU. YOU, who can respect and conform to a foreign system in other countries but cannot in your own, YOU who will throw papers and cigarettes on the road the moment you touch Indian ground. If you can be involved and appreciative citizen in an alien country, why cannot you be the same, here in India?

We go to the polls to choose a government and after that forfeit our responsibility. We expect the government to clean up but we won’t stop chucking garbage everywhere nor are we going to pick up a stray piece of paper and throw it in the bin. We expect the railways to provide clean bathrooms but we are not going to learn the proper use of it. We want Indian Airlines and Air India to provide the best of food and toiletries but won’t stop pilfering at the least opportunity.

When it comes to burning social issues related to women, dowry and girl child, we make loud protestations and continue to do the reverse at home; the excuse being “The whole system has to change. How will it matter if I alone forego my son’s rights to a dowry?”

So who’s going to change the system? Definitely not me and YOU. When it comes to the system, we lock ourselves with our families into a safe cocoon and look at countries far away. We run to America to bask in their glory and praise their system.

When New York becomes insecure, we run to England. When England experiences unemployment, we take the next flight out to the Gulf. When the Gulf War struck, we demanded to be rescued and brought home by the Indian government. Everybody is out to abuse and rape the country. No one thinks of feeding the system. Our conscience is mortgaged to money!”

Every Indian should read this “heart-bleed” from our beloved President Dr. Abdul Kalam. Better late than never! Let us resolve to work together, to bring back the past glory to our Great Mother Land!