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Speech
of Shri Pranab Mukherjee, Hon'ble Minister of External Affairs,Govt.
of India Chairman Global India Foundation, Vice Admiral P.J. Jacob, Chief of Naval Staff, Admiral Sureesh Mehta, my young friend, Dr. Amit Mitra, Secretary-General, Federation of Indian Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Prof O P Mishra, distinguished guests and speakers on this occasion. To be very frank I am little embarrassed by listening to all the good words and sometimes I wonder whether I deserve it. But at the same time, I gratefully recognize the support, inspirations, encouragement which I have received throughout my life from innumerable persons. I had been in the Government and Parliament for quite sometime and in fact from 1970s onward in every decade, whenever Indian National Congress has formed the government I have been a member of that government at the Centre and also in the national Parliament, first in the Upper House and later in the Lok Sabha for almost four decades. And the experiences which I have gathered in these areas are enriched by the support and encouragement which I received from all my colleagues.
Shri Pranab Mukherjee, Hon'ble Minister of External Affairs, Govt. of India addresses the gathering When I entered into Kotah House naturally my mind goes back to the days when during this period I entered into the other wing of the South Bloc as Minister of Defence and a very beautiful piece of advice which I received from one of the very senior serving officer. Now he has retired, that will be reflective how a right advice from the colleagues can enrich a person. While having discussions about the problems of the National Defence and what is to be done, which is a normal practice when a new Minister assumes office, and in my case it was more relevant in the sense that before that except in the Ministry of External Affairs during the Prime Ministership of P V Narsimha Rao all alone I had been in some economic ministries including the National Planning Commission as Deputy Chairman for 5 years. Therefore the little knowledge which I have as political executive in running the ministry for more or less confined in the areas of trade, commerce, money, finance, planning so I was little worried over how I will deal with the new area and the new responsibilities which have been vested in me. That the short story, which not a story but short anecdote which I want to share with you as many of the senior officers, retired and serving are present here, some of them I remember it, one of the very senior serving officers, now retired, told me, it was very witty, humorous and had excellent command over language. In course of discussion while smiling he said, Sir, I hope you are not carrying the baggage from the other side of the street. Immediately, I reacted that when he was a young officer, with the then Chief he came to see me, accompanied by this same senior to plead for some additional allocation for the Defence when I was Finance Minister and the Finance Minister I had in those days, I am talking about early 80s, when the volume of financial transaction was not so huge as it is today. My colleague has just presented the budget where the expenditure budget is more than 600,000 crores but somehow or the other the priorities, to some extent, did not take care of the full requirement of the Defence forces. As you all know during these years, we have kept our defence expenditure well below 3% of our GDP. So I responded to him by saying that surely I will not carry any baggage from the other side of the street as you know the Ministry of Finance is located in the North Bloc and the Ministry of Defence is located in the South Bloc. That is the indication of from the other side of the street and during my tenure I had the privilege of stepping up the budget in the Defence Ministry. The same tradition is still being carried on. This year also my colleague in the Finance Ministry has done some justice to the need and requirement of the services. The short point which I have tried to drive at my entire career in the political executive’s role, I have been immensely benefited by the civil servants. And that is why I could easily build up a good rapport with them and sometimes I tell with little pride and boast I would not be modest that I have some good track records in the sense I did never quarrel with any of my colleagues in the Permanent Civil Service nor I did have any occasion of any serious differences. Differences, sometimes may crop up, but we argue, we discuss and we find a solution. I have no hesitation to tell that on most of the occasions services rendered by the Permanent Service whether it is the armed forces or it is in the civil areas are correct and appropriate. I would not like to take much of your time but really I am embarrassed and indeed grateful to Global India Foundation and I also take this opportunity of congratulating my young friend, Dr. Amit Mitra whom I knew from his school days not to speak of college days. Many of you are aware of him; know him personally as a great economic diplomat in the private sector not in the government. As an excellent organization as the Secretary-General of the premier commercial organization of this country, Federation of Indian Chamber of Commerce and Industry. But many of you may not be aware that he comes from a very illustrious family. His mother was niece of Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose and his father was Shri Haridas Mitra. I had the privilege of having strong support from him in early years of my political career. He was a great patriot and freedom fighter. The British government tried him in secrecy, sentenced him to death and when this information reached Mahatma Gandhi, he had to personally intervene by pleading to Lord Wavell to save the life of the young man. He comes of such an illustrious family and received Padmashree award. This recognition is small recognition of his contribution in the field of expanding our economic relation in the private sector and building up the public and private partnership in India and outside. On a number of occasions I had the privilege of interacting with him. Aircrafts and land forces, huge amount would be required to update our technology and for that the contribution of the indigenous industry both in public and private sector would be immensely beneficial. Friends, we have entered into a phase in our march towards achieving self sufficiency. When we adopted the Constitution in the Constituent Assembly of India we completed the job in 3 years, starting from November 1946, completing in November 1949 and introducing it from 26th January 1950. Since then 58 years have passed, this is the 60th year of our independence and when we look back and try to look at from where we began and where we are today and where we want to reach, I think every Indian has a reason to feel proud. Once Sir Anthony Eden, the British Prime Minister, while commenting on the Indian constitution described it and perhaps most aptly as the biggest magna carta of the social and economic transformation. Indeed Indian Constitution is not merely an instrument of governance but it is the magna carta for the socio-economic transformation and we are trying to achieve it. 9% of GDP growth over a period on a sustainable basis is a minimum requirement to provide jobs to all jobless people, to eradicate poverty, to fight against the deprivations and to take care of health and education for all. After all this is a country of one billion plus people. And we are committed in the language of the Father of Nation to wipe out every drop of tear from every eye and unless that goal is reached , that commitment is fulfilled the tryst with destiny which Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru talked about while unfurling the tricolour flag at midnight of 14th and 15th August, that journey will not be complete. And I am indeed grateful to Global India Foundation for honouring me though I feel profusely embarrassed but I am associated and I am privileged to be associated with this organization because it is coming up as a growing think tank. The level of intellectual discussions which take place on our Look-East Policy, neighbourhood policy, on our South-East Asian policies, our interaction with ASEAN and the Europeans are full of insights and critical analysis. This type of think tank is needed to provide the inputs to those who are in charge of framing the policy and planning the governance of the country. Indeed I am grateful to you for giving me this opportunity and express my gratitude to you. Thank You, Ladies and Gentlemen. |
