Ludhiana, February 7
“Those who adopt war as their culture of life devastate humanity, destroy the resources and perish. But those who prefer to imbibe culture of peace, they love, live, develop and grow stronger,” said Dr Sardara Singh Johl, Vice-Chairman, Planning Commission, Punjab and Chief Patron of the International Students’ Conference that started here today.
He was inaugurating the 3-day International Students’ Conference on ‘Volunteering for Peace and Social Engineering’, being organised by the Central Students’ Council, Guru Gobind Singh Study Circle at Punjab Agricultural University. The conference is dedicated to the International Decade for Culture of Peace and Non-Violence as proclaimed by UNESCO.
He said war was not a characteristic of a particular community or sect; “It is the individual intolerance of fellow beings that materialises into conflicts. To bring in peace we need to revive our age old value based social system. Mere logic can never console a hurt psyche. It is ‘the value of tolerance, compassion and
forgiveness, which can avoid a violent reaction. Education also has a great role to pay in building defences of peace in the minds of people.
The speakers, while appreciating the role of Guru Gobind Singh Study Circle in human development, lauded the efforts of the study circle and said voluntary organisations were the schools for spirited social engineers. A voluntary organisation provides practical training to such volunteers. Today voluntary organisations have emerged as a major sector in our society and their role in sustainable development of society is being understood more realistically.
Mr Jagdish Gandhi, winners of UNESCO peace award, said “in order to remove hatred from our minds we need to remove all sorts of discrimination, be that economic, social, religious, political or rail, disparities and discrimination breed hatred and hatred generates conflicts. Hatred is contagious and it spreads like an epidemic, and when hatred turns political, we see holocausts like world wars”.
Dr Kirpal Singh Aulakh, Vice-Chancellor, PAU, exhorted the international students’ community to let the deals clash but not the hearts. “Peace is a journey of the thousand miles and it must be taken one step at a time”.
Dr Gursanagat Pal Singh, President, Central Students’ Council, delivered the theme lecture. Citing the UNESCO constitutional statement that since wars begin in the minds of men, it is in the minds of men that the defences of peace must be constructed,” he called for sustained efforts to promote students’ initiative for social transformation of our society into a peace loving entity.
Dr Khem Singh, former VC, PAU said culture was evolved through living a principled life. The type of principles one adopts determines the type of culture. He emphasised on keeping peace within oneself, only then can one also bring peace to others. When a man finds no peace within himself, it is useless to seek it elsewhere.
Principal Ram Singh, chief organiser, said, “There is no way to peace rather peace is the way. Dr Charan Kamal Singh, Joint Secretary, Organising Committee, called for giving peace a chance. Mr Gurmit Singh, Chief Secretary, Guru Gobind Singh Study Circle, proposed a vote of thanks.
Dr Prithipal Singh Kapoor, former pro-Vice-Chancellor GNDU, Mr Partap Singh, Bank of Punjab, Dr Ravi Bhushan, President, Nasha Chaddo Muhim, were also present on the occasion.
More than 500 students from all over the country and abroad have registered for this mega student event and are deliberating enthusiastically and in an interactive fashion to understand each other and prepare themselves to share the responsibility of future world leadership through spiritual-scientific approach.
