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| Thursday,
July 25, 2002, Chandigarh, India   
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Narayanan focuses on unity
New Delhi, July 24 Stepping down from the elevated position of the First Citizen and welcoming Dr Abdul Kalam as the next President of India, Mr Narayanan chose to focus a major portion of his farewell speech on the need for safeguarding the unity of India. The President regretted that the older generation had failed to set an example for the country’s youth, who were awaiting a call from the elders and examples of service to the people and the nation. Touching briefly on the current phase of economic reforms, Mr Narayanan said liberalisation and globalisation should not ignore the weaker majority, including the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes. “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 the marginalised sections of our society”, he added. Calling for safeguarding the unity of India and the democratic order, which has elicited a sense of wonder and admiration from the world, Mr Narayanan said: “At the base of our unity is our tradition of tolerance, religious tolerance and communal and social amity.” Mr Narayanan said the poison of communalism had caused much violence and hatred in some parts of the country. He emphasised the need for protecting the precious tradition of tolerance that had made India’s unity and democracy credible and enduring. The President said: “We need the Hindus, who form the majority, to speak out in the traditional spirit of the Hindu religion.” It is for the social and political leaders to create communal harmony and a congenial atmosphere in the country, he said. Quoting Swami Vivekananda, Mahatma Gandhi and Jawaharlal Nehru, he said: “Vivekananda entertained a vision of India having a Vedantic brain, an Islamic body and a Christian heart. Similarly, Mahatma Gandhi clearly stated: “I do not expect India of my dreams to develop one religion — wholly Hindu, wholly Christian and wholly Muslim - but I want it to be wholly tolerant with its religions working side by side with one another.”He said Nehru also stressed the need for tolerance, stating that “We must give Muslims security and the rights of citizens in a democratic state. If we fail to do so, we shall have a festering sore which will eventually poison the whole body of politics and probably destroy it.” The President quoted his own example to disclose that both Hindus and Christians in his village in Kerala helped him in his early studies. Similarly, both Hindus and Muslims helped him get elected to the Lok Sabha for three consecutive terms with a sizeable majority. The President described his tenure as “exciting” as he participated in the 50th anniversary of the Republic and saw India enter the 21st century. “It was exciting for me to see our country stepping into the new century as the largest and most vibrant democracy in the world, as an economic and technological power of significance, and above all, as a country of a billion people that has achieved self-sufficiency in food for the first time in its modern history”, he added.  |
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Kalam’s kin in Delhi New Delhi, July 24 The visitors included Mr Kalam’s lone surviving elder brother Mr
A. P. K. Muthu Marakkayar, who had to face hordes of photographers and pressmen at the platform at the New Delhi railway station as they alighted from a AC three-tier compartment of the GT Express. Dressed in a simple white kurta, dhoti and a maroon headgear, Mr Marakkayar said “I will not be staying at the Rashtrapati Bhavan even if the President asks me to and will be returning home on the 26th itself.
“I am happy. But, I don’t expect him to serve us. The nation is obviously more important than the family,” he said in a feeble voice before leaving the railway station. “We are quite excited to witness the swearing-in ceremony tomorrow and to see the Rashtrapati Bhavan. It’s a dream come true for us,” said a relative of the President-elect. Mr Kalam’s friends that included his cousin Mr Nooruddin, who studied with him in the primary school said though the recent events that propelled Mr Kalam to Presidency was “like a dream” they would not seek any favours from him as “the nation was more important than the family.” The 38-members, all natives of the temple town of Rameswaram in Tamil Nadu, were later driven to the DRDO guest house near the IGI airport. |
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