AS DESIRED BY THE PRESIDENT OF INDIA, THIS PAPER IS FOR CIRCULATION
>
>
> President's Office
>The President of India
>Dr. A. P. J. ABDUL KALAM'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 Alexander on-wards. 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, 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 the top 5 nations of the world in terms of GDP. We have 10
>percent growth rate in most areas. 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 economics 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 Sathish Dhawan, who succeded 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, SLV-3. 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 makes 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 Science
>visited my laboratory. He lifted
>the material and found It so fight 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
>the 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 them. Why?
>
>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 land 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 T.Vs, 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 ah under-developed
>nation; it is 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 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 airlines
>is the worst in the world, mails never reach their destination.
>
>YOU say that our country has been fed to the dogs and is in 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 dogs 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 do
>everything for us. 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 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 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
>is the whole system which has to change, how will it matter if I alone
>forego my son's 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 experience unemployment, we take the next flight out
>of 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 HAD 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 KALAM
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