from:President's Office - The President of India

[Guest guest]

 

DR A P J Abdul Kalaam's Speech in Hyderabad

==============================================================

" I have three visions for India. In 3000 Years of our history, people from all

over the world have come and invaded us, captured our lands, conquered our

minds. From onwards. The Greeks, the Turks, the Moguls, the

Portuguese, the British, the French, the Dutch, all of them came and Looted us,

took over what was ours. Yet we have not done this to any other nation.

We have not conquered anyone. We have not grabbed their land, their

culture, and their history and tried to enforce our way of life on them.

Why? Because we respect the freedom of others. That is why my first vision is

that of FREEDOM.

I believe that India got its first vision of this in 1857, when we started the

war of independence. It is this freedom that we must protect and nurture and

build on. 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 top 5 nations of the world in terms of GDP. We have 10 percent growth rate

in most Vareas. Our poverty levels are falling. Our achievements are being

globally recognized today. Yet we lack the self-confidence to see ourselves as

a developed nation, self- reliant and self-assured. Isn't this incorrect?

I have a third vision. India must stand up to the world. Because I believe that,

unless India stands up to the world, no one will respect us. Only 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. My good fortune was to have worked

with three great minds. Dr. Vikram Sarabhai of the Dept of space, Professor

Satish Dhawan who succeeded him and Dr Brahm Prakash, father of nuclear

material. I was lucky to have worked with all three of them closely and

consider this the great opportunity of my life.

I see four milestones in my career: Twenty years I spent in ISRO. I was given

the opportunity to be the project director for India's first

Satellite launch vehicle, SLV3. The one that launched Rohini. These years played

a very important role in my life of Scientist. After my ISRO years, I joined

DRDO and got a chance to be the part of India's guided missile program. It was

my second bliss when Agni met its mission requirements in 1994. The Dept of

Atomic Energy and DRDO had this tremendous partnership in the recent nuclear

tests, on May 11 and 13. This was the third bliss. The joy of participating with

my team in these nuclear tests and proving to the world that India can make it,

that we are no longer a developing nation but one of them. It made me feel very

proud as an Indian.

The fact that we have now developed for Agni a re-entry structure, for which we

have developed this new material. A very light material called carbon-carbon.

One day an orthopedic surgeon from Nizam Institute of Medical Sciences

visited my laboratory. He lifted the material and found it so light that he took

me to his hospital and showed me his patients. There were these little girls

and boys with heavy metallic calipers weighing over three Kg. each, dragging

their feet around. He said to me: Please remove the pain of my patients. In

three weeks, we made these Floor reaction Orthosis 300-gram calipers and took

them to the orthopedic center. The children didn't believe their eyes. From

dragging around a three kg. load on their legs, they could now move around.

Their parents had tears in their eyes. That was my fourth bliss!

Why is the media here so negative?

Why are we in India so embarrassed to recognize our own strengths, our

achievements?

We are such a great nation. We have so many amazing success stories but we

refuse to acknowledge

We are the first in milk production.

We are number one in Remote sensing satellites.

We are the second largest producer of wheat.

We are the second largest producer of rice.

Look at Dr Sudarshan, he has transferred the tribal village into a

self-sustaining, self-driving unit.

There are millions of such achievements but our media is only obsessed in the

bad news and failures and disasters.

I was in Tel Aviv once and I was reading the Israeli newspaper. It was the day

after a lot of attacks and bombardments and deaths had taken place. The Hamas

had struck. But the front page of the newspaper had the picture of a Jewish

gentleman who in five years had transformed his desert into an orchid and a

granary. It was this inspiring picture that everyone woke up to. The gory

details of killings, bombardments, deaths, were inside in the newspaper, buried

among other news.

In India we only read about death, sickness, terrorism, crime.

Why are we so NEGATIVE?

Another question: Why are we, as a nation so obsessed with foreign things?

We want foreign TVs, we want foreign shirts. We want foreign technology.Why this

obsession with everything imported. Do we not realize that self-respect comes

with self-reliance?

I was in Hyderabad giving this lecture, when a 14 year old girl asked me for

my autograph. I asked her what her goal in life is. She replied: I want to live

in a developed India. For her, you and I will have to build this developed

India. You must proclaim. India is not an under-developed nation; it is a

highly developed nation.

Do you have 10 minutes? Allow me to come back with a vengeance. Got 10 minutes

for your country? If yes, then read; otherwise, choice is yours.

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, mails never reach their Destination.

YOU say that our country has been fed to the dogs and is the absolute

pits.

YOU say, say and say. What do YOU do about it?

Take a person on his way to Singapore. Give him a name-YOURS. Give him 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 or eat in the stores. YOU

are as proud of their Underground links as they are. YOU pay $5 (approx Rs 60)

to drive through Orchard Road (equivalent of Mahim Causeway or Pedder Road)

between 5 PM and 8 PM. YOU come back to the parking lot to punch your parking

ticket if you have over stayed in a restaurant or a shopping mall irrespective

of your status identity.

In Singapore you don't say anything, DO YOU?

YOU wouldn't dare to eat in public during Ramadan, in Dubai.

YOU would not dare to go out without your head covered in Jeddah

YOU would not 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 55 mph (88 km/h) in Washington and then tell

the traffic cop, " Jaanta hai main kaun hoon (Do you know who I am?).

I am so and so's son. Take your two bucks and get lost. "

YOU wouldn't chuck an empty coconut shell anywhere other than the garbage pail

on the beaches in Australia and New Zealand.

Why don't YOU spit Paan on the streets of Tokyo?

Why don't YOU use examination jockeys or 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 an involved and appreciative citizen in an alien country, why cannot

you be the same here in India?

Once in an interview, the famous Ex-municipal commissioner of Bombay, Mr

Tinaikar, had a point to make. " Rich people's dogs are walked on the streets to

leave their affluent droppings all over the place, " he said. " And then the same

people turn around to criticize and blame the authorities for inefficiency and

dirty pavements. What do they expect the officers to do?

Go down with a broom every time their dog feels the pressure in his bowels?

In America every dog owner has to clean up after his pet has done the job. Same

in Japan. Will the Indian citizen do that here? " He's right. We go to the polls

to choose a government and after that forfeit all responsibility. We sit back

wanting to be pampered and expect the government to do everything for us whilst

our contribution is totally negative.

We expect the government to clean up but we are not going to stop chucking

garbage all over the place nor are we going to stop to pick a 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 bathrooms. We want

Indian Airlines and Air India to provide the best of food and toiletries but we

are not going to stop pilfering at the least opportunity. This applies even to

the staff who is known not to pass on the service to the public. When it comes

to

burning social issues like those related to women, dowry, girl child! and

others, we make loud drawing room protestations and continue to do the reverse

at home.

Our excuse? " It's the whole system which has to change, how will it matter if I

alone forego my sons' rights to a dowry. " So who's going to change the system?

What does a system consist of? Very conveniently for us it consists of our

neighbours, other households, other cities, other communities and the

government. But definitely not me and YOU. When it comes to us actually making a

positive contribution to the system we lock ourselves along with our families

into a safe cocoon and look into the distance at countries far away and wait

for a Mr Clean to come along & work miracles for us with a majestic sweep of his

hand or we leave the country and run away. Like lazy cowards hounded by our

fears 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 is war

struck, we demand to be rescued and brought home by the Indian government.

Everybody is out to abuse and rape the country. Nobody thinks of feeding the

system. Our conscience is mortgaged to money.

Dear Indians, The article is highly thought inductive, calls for a great deal of

introspection and pricks one's conscience too.... I am echoing J F Kennedy's

words to his fellow Americans to relate to Indians????

" ASK WHAT WE CAN DO FOR INDIA AND DO WHAT HAS TO BE DONE TO MAKE

INDIA WHAT AMERICA AND OTHER WESTERN COUNTRIES ARE TODAY "

Lets do what India needs from us.

Forward this mail to each Indian for a change instead of sending Jokes or junk

mails.

Thank you,

Dr Abdul Kalaam

manish kothari