The Hindu : 'Religion should promote development'

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, Feb 16, 2003

National

National

'Religion should promote development'

The President, A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, with a child dressed as Mahatma Gandhi at a function organised by the South Indian Education Society in Mumbai on Saturday. Students from various schools gathered to interact with the President. — Photo: Vivek Bendre

Mumbai Feb. 15. The President, A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, today said religion should graduate into a ``spiritual force'' to rein in growing incidents of communal riots.

``Religion has to graduate into a spiritual force and the disparities in development should be removed, then only a society, free from communal riots, can be evolved,'' Dr. Kalam told a gathering of school students at a function, ``Rashtrapathi ke Sath'', organsied by the South Indian Education Society in central Mumbai.

The President, replying to a query by a student as to how incidents of communal riots, with special emphasis on communal conflagration in Gujarat, could be brought under control, said ``the way is to create enlightened citizens''.

There should be classes about value system in the school curriculum also, he added.

Dr. Kalam, who arrived here last night and had an hour long meeting with Jain sage Acharya Mahapragya, said ``we discussed at length whether religious forces can be transformed into spiritual forces'' and configured ``yes, it is possible''.

Speaking about his dream of a developed India by 2020 and meeting over 125,000 school students from across 17 States, Dr. Kalam said the young generation shared his dream of a peaceful, prosperous and safe India.

Dr. Kalam said that to make India a developed nation it had to achieve a GDP growth of 9-10 per cent, almost double the present rate.

``Political leadership empowering people with visionary policies can make the country prosperous,'' he said.

Quoting Noble laureate Sir C.V. Raman, Dr. Kalam asserted that Indians should ``destroy the defeatist spirit and they can achieve their rightful place in destiny''.

Asked if a civilised society needed nuclear weapons and wars, Dr. Kalam said though he believed in a peaceful world, ``unfortunately man is happy with war''.

Enlisting three conflicts — religious, ideological and market forces — that lead to a war, the President said unfortunately ``in today's world all the three conflicts are in force ... making it a difficult situation''.

However, he said a movement by 300 million children below 20 years in the country would alone prevent a war if they insisted on living in a peaceful world.

To a query on brain drain, Dr. Kalam said ``I don't mind it. There is nothing wrong in it as even ancient Indian tradition has promoted the movement of great minds to prosperous land''.

Dr. Kalam said the brain drain had, in fact, helped India which produced 300,000 engineering and M.Sc. and B.Sc. students, of which only 20-30 per cent go out of India.

However, other scientists from across the globe should also come to India and work here, he added.

Dr. Kalam in his 45-minute address emphasised on the ``indomitable spirit'' and to fight against ``failures''.

He listed scientific achievements leading from Aryabhatta to Einstein to stress the need for an ``indomitable spirit'' and also referred to fatal mishap of Columbia space shuttle, that left seven space researchers dead. ``They were not lucky''.

Earlier, the President on his arrival mingled with school children, throwing security cordon into disarray.

He asked students to repeat with him — ``Intensive learning leads to creativity. Creativity leads to thinking. Thinking leads to knowledge and knowledge makes me a great human being''.

Underprivileged kids

Speaking to a delegation of children from the city-based 'Yuva Parivartan' at the Raj Bhavan here today, Dr. Kalam said that more opportunities for vocational training should be created for underprivileged children who were unable to pursue higher studies.

During a brief interaction with the children, he noted that an act had already been passed making provision for free and compulsory education for every child up to Standard VIII. He himself had given assent to the Bill so that every child could get better educational opportunities, he said.

He also assured the delegation that he would discuss the issue with central authorities in Delhi.

Dr. Kalam said more opportunities should be created in rural areas so that youth could be given jobs there to stop the migration of people from villages to urban areas in search of employment.

PTI, UNI

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