Address at the Indira Gandhi Prize for Peace,disarmament and Development 2005 Rashtrapati Bhavan, New Delhi

"Vision is the Life force of a Nation"

I am indeed delighted to participate in the award ceremony of the "Indira Gandhi Prize for Peace, Disarmament and Development award for 2005". I would like to greet the Members of the Indira Gandhi Memorial Trust and distinguished guests. I congratulate His Excellency Mr. Hamid Karzai for receiving the "Indira Gandhi Prize for Peace, Disarmament and Development" award for 2005. His Excellency Mr. Hamid Karzai, is in the process of building modern Afghanistan and he has a unique mission of political development and economic development of Afghanistan. The award which is in the name of our former Prime Minister Smt. Indira Gandhi who had a strategic vision for India, which she had achieved in her life time.

India and Afghanistan

India and Afghanistan have the unique distinction of sharing history and culture. I recall Mr. President, your specialization in political science at Himachal University in Shimla, Himachal Pradesh. The spirit of courage of His Excellency Mr. Hamid Karzai, in providing the leadership at this critical time for re-building Afghanistan by bringing people together for a prosperous Afghanistan is important for many nations.

When I met His Excellency President Mr. Hamid Karzai, he said, now Afghanistan is on the march towards democracy and economic development, particularly the rural villages where 80% of people live. Definitely India and Afghanistan can further cooperate in empowering the villages in education and healthcare and creating more employment potential. In this direction of higher level of training and skill imparting training, India will definitely share the experiences with Afghanistan. Mr. President, I am sure you would have put forward your vision for Afghanistan's economic prosperity, security, peace and happiness of the people during the Regional Economic Cooperation meeting. India is with you in your missions.

In this context, I would like to discuss on the topic "Vision is the Life force of a Nation", which will benefit our people.

Growth of civilizations

Life originated in this globe 600 million years ago and continental drift occurred 200 million years ago making our one land into five continents. Mammals evolved 140 million years ago, Hominid (human type) evolved 26 million years ago but the modern man emerged only some 200,000 years ago. That too he emigrated and colonized the rest of the world only since 50,000 years. Spoken language was some 10,000 years old while written only a few thousand years old. All the phenomenal progress of Man was thus only within this short span of 400 -200 generations (i.e., 10,000 -5,000 years).

Also, the history of planet Earth will reveal that the world has gone through many, many civilization. Today very few civilizations are surviving. Why many civilizations disappeared or destroyed? Research and studies of the phenomena bring out the fact that the destruction of civilization has happened due to the absence of visions for the people. For example, in the Indian history three times great visions blossomed. One after the Kalinga war, emperor Asoka gave Ahimsa Dharma as the vision for his kingdom. Mahatma Gandhi used this doctrine in South Africa to fight against the apartheid system and in India he initiated action oriented Indian Independence movement and got the freedom. I will call the Indian Independence movement as a second vision. The third vision for the nation is transforming India into a developed nation before 2020.

With the evolution of human being, many advances in science and technology have been made for progressively improving the quality of life. At the same time, from the origin until now, society has always been at war within and between groups and has generated two world wars. Recently, two more wars had also been triggered. Presently, terrorism and low intensity warfare are affecting many parts of the world and insecurity prevails.

Here I am reminded of Mrs. Indira Gandhi's warning against the danger of total annihilation, if mad arms race was not put an end to, she said "At our stage of human achievement and consciousness some of the older commitments which were moral, constructive and creative are becoming increasingly restrictive. Narrow patriotism, regional pride and sectarian prejudice do not help struggles for survival for a single race. In the next century, we could well think of planetary patriotism. Growing scientific and technological ability can ensure a minimum quality of life to all people everywhere on earth within a generation or two. To avoid the drift, towards annihilation ...courage and determination would be the most wonderful and laudable achievements." What can be the solution for avoiding such a situation?

Challenges of Modern Society

Today, with a global population of 6 billion, only 3 billion have access to limited or perhaps satisfactory supply of drinking water. It is estimated that 33 percent of the world's population has no access to sanitation and 17 percent has no access to safe water. But by 2025 the world population is going to rise to 8 billion but only one billion will have sufficient water. Two billion, which is 25 percent, will have no access to safe water. Five billion that is 62 percent will have no access to sanitation. We should collectively find a solution for this problem. The use of fossil fuels has caused enormous problems for the environment of planet Earth resulting in abnormal changes in climatic conditions. This has resulted in researchers to look for clean energy sources such as hydel power plants, nuclear power plants, energy from renewable sources such as solar, wind and tidal. Also, in the transportation sector there is a need to progressively introduce the use of bio-diesel and ethanol. In the health care sector, major diseases like HIV/AIDS, cancer, tuberculosis, malaria, other water borne diseases and coronary artery diseases have increased considerably. Man is fighting a war on all fronts - terrorism on one side, diseases and environmental degradation on the other and above all poverty in life. On the other hand man has created technologies which can bridge nations and minds - if mind-willing!

Solutions to Challenges

What I would like to discuss with you is the possibility of creating a near disease free, economically prosperous and peaceful society. In my opinion, this could be achieved through "Evolution of Enlightened citizens" that has three dimension approach for evolving a happy, prosperous and peaceful society in our planet. I have shared these thoughts with many intellectuals in national and international sphere.

Evolution of enlightened citizenship

How do we create such an enlightened society? Hence, the evolution of enlightened society is possible by adopting three vital components, which are (a) Education with value system (b) Religion transforming into spirituality and (c) Economic development for societal transformation. More details on the global vision can be seen in my website . Let my now focus only on the economic development for societal transformation which transforms the developing nation into a developed nation. A world body has to give leadership in evolution of enlightened citizenship to the society.

Transforming our nation into an economically developed nation

In our country, we have a population of over one billion people of which 220 million have to be lifted up. Similar situation exists in many nations. They need education, they need habitat, they need health care, and creation of employment potential. To meet their needs, in India we have the third vision of transforming India into a developed nation by the year 2020. We have identified five areas where India has a core competence for integrated action: (1) Agriculture and food processing (2) Education and Healthcare (3) Information and Communication Technology (4) Self reliance in critical technologies and (5) Infrastructure development such as power, transportation, and communication and including Providing Urban Amenities in Rural Areas (PURA) which envisages sustained rural development through provision of physical connectivity, electronic connectivity, knowledge connectivity leading to economic connectivity of the rural villages. For India, we have planned 7000 PURAs Clusters. This plan of action and experience, we can share with Afghanistan. The three dimensional approach of providing value based education, religion transforming into spiritual force and economic development will have to be enabled to lead to evolution of a prosperous, happy and peaceful society by all nations. Unity of minds is a pre-requisite for such a society. Afghanistan and India, and the other nations can work with unity of minds in this region for realizing the dream of transforming our nations into developed nations. When India is working towards becoming a developed nation through economic progress while preserving its civilizational heritage in partnership with many countries particularly Afghanistan, not only India but many nations will get transformed as developed nations. It is essential to bring prosperity to many developing nations.

Conclusion

A nation without a vision is just like a ship in the ocean without an engine for powering and sails (Rudder) for direction. Fortunately, youth power of a nation is the engine that gives the thrust to the movement towards growth. The youth should be empowered to give a positive direction and leadership for development by enabling them as the multiple sails of the ship. That will take countries into right direction, and ultimately lead into the path of knowledge society towards developed nation.

Let me once again congratulate His Excellency Mr. Hamid Karzai, for receiving the Indira Gandhi Prize for Peace, Disarmament and Development award for 2005. My best wishes to the people of Afghanistan.

May God bless you.