Thursday, Jul 25, 2002
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By Harish Khare
The President K.R. Narayanan, the President-elect, A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, the Vice-President, Krishan Kant, Suman Krishan Kant, and the Prime Minister, Atal Behari Vajpayee, at a party hosted by the President at the Rashtrapati Bhawan in New Delhi on Wednesday. — Photo: S. Arneja
Without mentioning `Hindutava' or the recent communal violence in Gujarat, the President, in his farewell address to the nation, clearly sought to advise the country against the policies and practices of a section of the ruling establishment. He juxtaposed the citizens' inherent goodness with the politicians' preference for communal idiom. Referring to his own term as a Lok Sabha member from Ottapalam (Kerala), Mr. Narayanan appreciated "the essential goodness of our people, their capacity to forget all communal, religious and social divisions of our society, when an occasion was presented to them.'' And, as the President sees it, it was the responsibility of "our social and political leaders to present the people with such occasions, especially today when the poison of communalism has caused so much violence and hatred in some parts of our country. We need the Hindus, who form the majority, to speak out in the traditional spirit of the Hindu religion.'' Mr. Narayanan quoted Vivekananda, Mahatma Gandhi and Jawaharlal Nehru to make the point that tolerance towards the minorities was as much a part of our cultural tradition as it was a political necessity. He cautioned that "we can ignore these words of wisdom at our risk. It is important for us today to introspect and realise that what makes India's unity and democracy credible and enduring is this precious tradition of tolerance.'' The President wanted to impress upon the citizens that tolerance and harmony — rather than hatred and divisiveness being practised by a section of the Sangh Parivar — are the defining features of the Indian civilization. He ended with an exhortation to the citizens to stand up for these values and traditions of tolerance: "My parting appeal to you, dear citizens of this proud and tolerant Republic of India, is to guard our tradition of tolerance, for, that is the soul of our culture and civilization, that is the spirit of our Constitution, and that is also the secret of the successful working of our democracy and the secret of the coherence of this vast country as a united nation.'' Apart from this reminder of the need for tolerance, Mr. Narayanan also referred to his other favourite theme: the need for egalitarian sensitivity. He noted that while it was a matter of satisfaction that there was this "200-odd million people who are educated and belong to the entrepreneurial and the more well-off classes'', he reminded the citizens that there were other less well-off who "are poor, ill-fed and illiterate''. He cautioned that "the economic reforms through liberalisation and globalisation should not ignore this weaker majority — the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes, the women who toil day and night and make life worth living in our homes.'' As he had done for the last five years, Mr. Narayanan refused to be swept off his feet by the razzle-dazzle of the "market magic''. He argued that "the provisions we have already made in our social and economic policies and programmes, must be strengthened, expanded and implemented with sincerity in order to deal successfully with the condition of all the marginalised sections of our society.'' The President noted with satisfaction that not only are we a vibrant democracy, we are also "an economic and technological power of significance, and above all, as a country of one billion people that has achieved self-sufficiency in food for the first time in its modern history.'' He admitted that perhaps "the older generation has failed to set an example and role models to our youth for social action in the service of the nation.'' But he was optimistic about the future: "If only we could release and set in motion the bottled up potential and energy of our youth we can change India, if not change the world.''
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