Tamil Nadu - Others

"Inculcate national unity among children"

Special Correspondent

National Integration Week celebrated

NEYVELI: The Chairman and Managing Director of Neyveli Lignite Corporation, S. Jayaraman, has underscored the point that the national unity could be founded only on the bedrock of affection and humanism, and not on divisive tendencies.

Delivering an address at the valedictory of the National Integration Week celebrations held on the NLC campus on Sunday, Mr. Jayaraman said the history, both ancient and recent, was replete with examples of how wars and internal strife had disintegrated countries.

Cohesive force

Two decades ago the United Soviet Socialist Republic remained a cohesive force, thereby balancing the world with two super power blocs — the USSR and the U.S. But after the disintegration of the former, the U.S. had emerged as the sole superpower. Immediately after Freedom, India too witnessed the Partition that claimed a heavy toll. Even dividing the States in India on linguistic basis had not fostered unity.Mr. Jayaraman said earlier there were illustrious leaders such as Mahatma Gandhi and Jawaharlal Nehru who guided the destiny of the nation. But now, there were no such stalwarts and therefore, the onus was now on parents to imbibe the spirit of nationalism and unity among their wards.

NLC Chief Vigilance Officer V. Narayanan said the National Integration Week was being celebrated annually to forge unity among the people. A nation united could deal effectively with internal disturbances and any foreign incursions. Therefore, the people must have the feeling that they were Indians first, he said.

NLC Directors K.S. Anandan (Mines), A.R. Ansari (Project and Planning), V. Sethuraman (Power) and P. Babu Rao (Personnel) participated.

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