Former PM Rajiv Gandhi’s speech at Congress centenary celebrations 28 Dec. 1985

Let the comparisons begin: Let the comparisons begin: Full text of Rajiv Gandhi’s famous 1985 speech

Rajiv Gandhi’s 1985 speech to an AICC session is his best and most known speech. The similarities between Rajiv’s this speech and Rahul Gandhi’s speech on the closing day of the chitan shivir, where he was appointed as Congress Vice president, are unmistakable. Take a look:

Inaugural Speech by
Congress President
Shri Rajiv Gandhi
and The Centenary Resolve

At
Congress Centenary Session
(Indira Nagar (Brabourne Stadium)
Bombay, December 28, 1985
CONGRESS CENTENARY SESSION, BOMBAY
DECEMBER 27-29, 1985

Friends,

This is a moment consecrated by history. One hundred years have passed since the Indian National Congress first met in this great city. Between then and now, India and the world have witnessed profound historical changes-changes that have affected the very structure of human thought and action. In this epoch of radical change, the Indian National Congress brought the world to India and took India to the world. Its non-violent revolution has transformed our nation. Today, it charts the path to India’s greatness.

We rejoice in this moment. We rejoice in the great achievements, the great deeds of the people of India. We rejoice in the noble expressions of the human intellect and spirit represented by Mahatma Gandhi, Jawaharlal Nehru and Indira Gandhi. We rejoice in the pledge redeemed. We rejoice that the honour is ours now to carry the torch of freedom and progress.

But our joy is mixed with sorrow. Indiraji should have been here today, speaking to you in her gentle, impassioned voice. One with Bharatmata’s immortal spirit, she now shines as a lodestar not only for us but for all humanity.

As I recall the great women and men who have led the Indian National Congress – the Parliament of Indian Nationalism – I feel proud and humble. I draw strength from the glorious tradition of our party and from the overflowing affection of the people of India.

May I thank dynamic Bombay and its gracious and hospitable people, for playing host to us, as they played host to our founding fathers in 1885? I, of course, have a sentimental relationship with Bombay. I was born here. Life- giving currents from every part of India flow into Bombay. It is India in microcosm.

Many distinguished delegates have come to this session from far and near, bringing to us the friendship and greetings of their parties and peoples. We appreciate this gesture. Through these honoured guests, we send our good wishes to the people of their countries.

As I stand before you this morning, my mind travels back to those fateful years when the Congress fought for India’s freedom. And I think of those giants who made the Indian National Congress. Seldom has the world seen a nobler galaxy of women and men, so selfless in their devotion to the cause of freedom, so exalted in thought, so brave in action, so pure in spirit. To remember them is to live once again in those times ‘when the world’s great age seemed to begin anew.’ A.O. Hume, Woomesh Chandra Bonnerji, Dadabhai Naoroji, Pherozeshah Mehta, Mahadev Govind Ranade, Badruddin Tyabji, Lokmanya Tilak, Gopal Krishna Gokhale, Surendra Nath Bannerjee, Annie Besant, Bepin Chandra Pal, Lala Lajpat Rai, Mahatma Gandhi, Motilal Nehru, Madan Mohan Malaviya, Deshbandhu Chitta Ranjan Das, Srivivasa Iyengar, Sarojini Naidu, M. A. Ansari, Jawaharlal Nehru, Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, Chakravarti Rajagopalachari, Mazharul Huque, Satyamurthi, Rajendra Prasad, Maulana Abul Kalam Azad, Saifudin Kitchlew, Tristao de Braganza Cunha, Gopabandhu Das, Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose, Gopinath Bordoloi, Govind Ballabh Pant, Purushottam Das Tandon, T. Prakasam, Bidhan Chandra Roy, Acharya Kripalani, Acharya Narendra Dev, Rajkumari Amrit Kaur, Rafi Ahmed Kidwai, Acharya Vinoba Bhave, Jayaprakash Narayan, Indira Gandhi, Kamaraj, Lal Bahadur Shastri, Gurmukh Singh Musafir, Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed and countless others. We bow in reverence to their memory. They awakened the spirit of freedom in the Indian people crushed under the oppressive burden of imperialism. Gurudev Tagore and Shri Aurobindo Ghosh were one with the leaders of our struggle for independence in reawakening India to its true destiny.

It is our fortune that one of our great freedom fighters, Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan Sahib, is with us today. His life is a saga of sacrifice and non-violence. He has asked nothing for himself and has given his all to the service of his fellow men. We greet him with respect, with love, and pray he may long be with us.

We are blessed with the presence of large number of freedom fighters. We honour them for they made freedom a living reality. Their refusal to submit to the indignity of slavery, the very act of their defiance, and their luminous vision of a united and free India touched the imagination of millions. To the nameless and unsung heroes of our freedom struggle, we offer our humble tribute. Their life-blood nourishes the body of independent India.

How did the miracle of India’s rebirth in freedom come about? And what did India do with this new life? The answers are to be found in the story of the Indian National Congress.

How shall we remember Mahatma Gandhi, that eternal pilgrim of freedom? Born of the very spirit of India, steeped in the tradition, the song, the legend of our ancient land – and yet he was revolutionary. Unique among revolutionaries, he marched for freedom, clad in the robe of truth, with non-violence for his staff.

He did not counter the violence of the oppressor with the violence of the oppressed. He met it by changing the oppressed from within. He freed them from fear and hatred. He ignited the greatest peaceful mass movement known to history. At his gentle summons, millions of Indians rose to assert their human dignity and walked upright with the spark of greatness in them.
File photo: Rajiv Gandhi at his oath taking ceremony.
Gandhiji the revolutionary was concerned with nothing less than the total reconstruction of our society. In Champaran among the impoverished peasants, in Ahmedabad among the textile workers, and in hundreds of thousands of villages of India, he had seen the soul of India seared by the ruthless exploitation of the poor. He saw how India’s social system had been vitiated by iniquitous practices – the oppression of the Harijans, of the women and of the poor.

To Mahatma Gandhi, the key to India’s progress was the development of its villages. In his unified vision, education, agriculture, village industry, social reform, all came together to provide the basis for a vibrant rural society, free from exploitation and linked to the urban centres as equals our planning incorporates this basic insight.

His crusade against untouchability stirred and ossified system. His radical premise of human dignity and equality electrified millions who lived and struggled at the very margin of social existence. Independent India was to enshrine Mahatma Gandhi’s war on untouchability in its Constitution.

The freedom movement transformed the status of women. Women fought along with men as comrades. In the process, the shackles that had bound them fell away. Legal safeguards and tights were to come later but Mahatma Gandhi emancipated women from slavery and oppression. What took centuries in other countries was accomplished in a matter of decades in our freedom struggle.

The mark of true revolutionary is that he sets new standards and values. Gandhiji did. Let us recall his words:

“I will give you a talisman. Whenever you are in doubt or when the self becomes too much with you, apply the following test: Recall the face of the poorest and the weakest man whom you may have seen and ask yourself if the step you contemplate is going to be of any use to him. Will he gain anything by it? Will it restore him to a control over his own life and destiny? In other words, will it lead to swaraj for the hungry and spiritually starving millions? Then you will find your doubts and your self melting away.”

We cannot, and will not, rest until we have won true swaraj for the hungry and spiritually starving millions – until we have wiped out poverty from our land. Then and only then can we claim the privilege of being true disciples of the great mahatma.

Mahatma Gandhi called Jawaharlal Nehru ‘the jewel of India’. Panditji added new dimensions to our concept of freedom. To a reawakened India, he brought intimations of mighty historical forces at work on the world stage. As the freedom struggle grew in intensity, he went out among the masses, unfolding his vision of the future: immemorial India rejuvenated by modern science, technology, and the cleansing moral force of socialism, yet retaining her identity and the age old wealth of her spiritual wisdom.

Jawaharlal Nehru destroyed the edifice of imperialism. For he knew he had the greater task of building a new society. He was a treat builder. He gave India the enduring structure of democratic parliamentary institutions buttressed by the rule of law. Fundamental rights, directive principles of State policy, and safeguards for the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes together make our Constitution one of humanity’s great charters of freedom and equality. We have passed through many a crisis, but democracy has continued to flourish-to the consternation of those who believed that democracy was for the rich, not for the poor. In India democracy, with all its claimant contention, is alive and vibrant.

Jawaharlal Nehru fashioned the planning process to reach the ultimate objective of a socialist. Planning is now a part of the national consensus. It was not always so. It used to be described as the road to serfdom. Those who scoffed have stayed to praise. We have a strong economy. We are firmly set on the path of self-reliance, which means more freedom, nor less. Our planning process has succeeded.

Panditji built the infrastructure of science and technology with loving care. Atomic energy and Space stand out as symbols of this achievement, bit no field was left untouched. Let us not forget that it was Panditji who established the great laboratories, the giant irrigation dams, the fertilizer plants and the agricultural universities. This was the foundation of out self-sufficiency.

Immersed as he was in the thick of our freedom struggle, Pandit Nehru foresaw that, in the ultimate analysis, the linkages between modern agriculture and industrialisation offered the only lasting solution to the poverty of India’s masses. With independence, the time came to translate into reality the dream of a vigorous, industrialised India. Panditji created the imposing structure of our industry. Leading this mighty effort was the public sector, a strong and dependable lever for development. He envisioned for it the commanding heights of the economy. Under his inspiration, basic industries, infrastructure, machine building, oil exploration, metals and minerals and defence industries were established. In the public sector new technology was absorbed and nurtured. New skills came to those who had never turned a simple lathe. Centres of modern industry blossomed in backward and remote areas. With confidence, the Indian people wrote a new chapter in their long and tumultuous history. Through the instrument of the public sector, Jawaharlal Nehru made the decisive break with India’s colonial de-industrialised stagnation.

Panditji was the great unifier of the Indian people. India is the home of many great religions. Her many splendoured mansion of unity rests on the bedrock of secularism. Like a great teacher, he expounded in simple language the philosophy of secularism. He repeatedly warned the nation against communalism. To him, secularism was the beacon light when waves of passion threatened to submerge us.

Panditji looked at the world with the eyes of a humanist, in love with nature and with the works of man. He perceived before many others, that the splitting of the atom had changed for all time to come the universe of discourse among nations. War in nuclear age was no longer policy by other means-it was mass suicide. He saw no meaning in military blocs. They did not guarantee security. They only guaranteed fear. He wanted nations to cooperate, not dominate. He evolved the philosophy of non-alignment. Non-align is the international expression of national resurgence. It is the extension of democracy to international relations. It means independence of thought and action. Panditji abjured entanglement with power blocs, because poser blocs are based on conflict, and erode the independence of countries, which join them. He put forward the positive concept of peaceful co-existence, and, co-operation to build a better, saner world free from anxiety, suspicion and fear. This vision of a cooperative world order even today guides the Non-aligned Movement, representing the vast majority of the family of nations. It is a powerful force for freedom, peace and justice in the world. In its centenary year, the Indian National Congress is proud that India has the honour to lead the Non-aligned Movement.

All this and more is the legacy of Jawaharlal Nehru, his imperishable bequest to us in the Indian National Congress.

The smooth succession of Lal Bahadur Shastri proved the inherent strength of our democratic system. He guided the country with steadfast devotion to the basic policies of the Congress. The Congress has always stood for patriotism, simplicity, selfless service and dedication to the cause of the underprivileged, Shastriji epitomised these values.

With the sudden demise of Shastriji, once more the questions arose with even greater urgency: would a united India survive? Would its democracy endure? Would a food-deficit country be able to preserve its independence? Would the cry of social justice remain unheeded? India’s voice for freedom, peace and justice remain as firm and resonant as in the past? Or would neo-colonialism claim yet another victim? Would India once again become a petitioner in the chancelleries of the west?

The world was torn by anxiety and conflict. In Vietnam, war continued to rage. There were no signs of any lessening of East-West tensions. In India, food shortages and inflation bred serious unrest. There were intense pressures to abandon the path of planned development. It was situation to daunt the most stout-hearted.

Never known to flee from challenge, Indira Gandhi took up cudgels on behalf of the masses of India. She placed the removal of poverty at the very centre of the planning process. One radical step followed boldly upon another, establishing beyond doubt where the sympathies of the Indian National Congress lay. The nationalisation of banks, the abolition of privy-purses, the takeover of the coal mines, the promulgation of radical land reforms and the creation of constitutional safety-nets for them, the formulation of a system of guaranteed prices to farmers, the setting up of a country wide public distribution system, the large scale extension on modern technology to agriculture, the establishment of Monopolies and Restrictive Trade Practices Commission to curb concentration of economic power, the great impetus to the growth of the public sector, the Pokharan test for peaceful purposes, the Space programme and the launching of the massive 20-Point Programme and the Rural landless Labour employment Guarantee Programme- all these electrified the nation.

The Congress in the late sixties reminded one of Panditji’s address to the 1936 Lucknow Congress, where he said:

“we have largely lost touch with the masses and, deprived of the life-giving energy that flows from them, we dry up and weaken and our organisation shrinks and loses the power it had.”

The people were adrift. The policies of the Congress were in confusion. There was no programme of action. At this point of crisis, Indira Gandhi revitalised the party by restoring its organic link with the masses. The sap of action began to flow one again in the veins of the organisation. The vocabulary and the idiom of Indian politics were never to be same again after her historic call for ‘garibi hatao’.

Indiraji transformed the Congress from a party in which vested interest had gradually gained ascendancy into a party which identified itself totally with the hopes and aspirations of the poor. Through her unrelenting struggle against those who opposed radical change in our social and economic structure, she placed her indelible stamp on the history of our party. With unparalleled tenacity, she persuaded millions of Congresswomen and men to pursue the path of socialism to progress. She took the people into confidence on the nature of the issues, which were convulsing the Congress and mobilised them behind her policies. The masses gave her the strength to face with unequalled courage the inner turmoil of the party. They manned the barricades. In 1969, the champions of the status quo had to retreat, relinquishing their control of our great organisations. The triumph of the Congress in the 1971 elections was a big blow to the forces that had thwarted social change from within the party. They were to regroup and challenge her again.

India’s unequivocal stand on major international issues had disturbed, even alarmed, forces who were exerting pressures on us to deflect us from our independent policy of non-alignment. The emergence of sovereign Bangladesh and Indira Gandhi’s historic role in it were anathema to neo-imperialism. Almost immediately thereafter began the collusion between external and internal forces of destabilisation. The international economic crisis, widespread drought and inflation within the country put an intolerable strain on our system. National stability was in dire peril.

To meet an unprecedented threat to the nation’s stability, an emergency was proclaimed in 1975. The process of socio-economic change gathered momentum with the promulgation of the bold and dynamic 20 Point Programme. A democrat to the core of her being, Indiraji called elections in 1977. She accepted the verdict of the people who defeated her and the Congress. She knew it was an angry reaction to some mistakes that had been committed, but that the people were still with her and with the Congress. She stood by the people in their travail as they faced the tragic consequences of the reversal of nationally accepted policies. But many of her colleagues did not have her courage of conviction. Their vision faltered. They parted company with her. The congress again emerged, with youth in the vanguard as the sword arm of the poor. They voted her back in 1980, expressing their unbounded love for her and trust in her commitment to social justice.

In radicalising the Congress, Indira Gandhi also gave new strength and vitality to the democratic parliamentary institutions of the Republic. She realigned our political process with the urges of the toiling masses. By translating the people’s aspirations into epoch making legislation, policy innovations and programmes for the uplift o the poor, she made the legislatures watchful guardians of the rights and needs of the people. Elections and the parliamentary process acquired ideological and programmatic clarity, giving direction to national progress. She mobilised immense numbers of people from all strata, filling them with hope and deepening their allegiance to the democratic way of life. In victory as in defeat, Indiraji was the prime mover of the people’s emotions and endeavours. She ensured that India’s democracy would never be the plaything of vested interests.

Indira Gandhi knew, as did Jawaharlal Nehru, that social justice depended on the production and equitable distribution of wealth. She attended to the growth potential of our economy like a living mother. The first to claim her attention was agriculture. Not just because and overwhelming majority derived their livelihood from agriculture, but because national independence and self-respect demanded that we do not stretch our hands before anyone for food. Many here will still recall the pain and the humiliation of the ‘ship-to-mouth’ days. She called upon our farmers and our agricultural scientists to apply modern technology to increase food production. Their heart-warming response is a matter of history. Thus were laid the impregnable foundations of self-reliance.

As she had faced not one but two oil crises, Indira Gandhi was determined to take India towards self-sufficiency in energy resources. The prodigious effort to raise oil production, trebling it in the short space of four years, is testimony to her far-sighted vision.

Indiraji had a unique relationship with India’s dedicated scientific community. She was their special friend to whom they turned for counsel and encouragement. Together they placed India in the front rank of international scientific communities. A few days ago I was in Kalpakkam to inaugurate the fast breeder test reactor. India is the seventh country in the world to have such a reactor. Indiraji’s monumental work in furthering indigenous science and technology has greatly strengthened the base for self-reliance.

Generations will remember with gratitude the decisive direction Indira Gandhi gave to India’s industrialisation and technological advance. She set exacting tasks for the public sector, which responded with enthusiasm. Through the exertions of the working class and talented managers and technologists, it became the pivot of India’s industrial progress. All branches and sectors of industry grew with speed, placing India among the major industrial nations of the world. The enormous range and depth of industrial progress, centred on the public sector, has served the nation well. Today, if we are poised for faster technological growth, the credit goes to Indiraji who prepared the see-bed of modernisation.

In the international field, Indira Gandhi was the authentic voice of non-alignment, of peace and peaceful coexistence, disarmament and development. She was bold and fearless, refusing to be cowed down by pressures howsoever strong. Where the independence or sovereignty of India was in question, she never vacillated, never hesitated, never compromised. She stood like a rock in the defence of India.

The passion that ruled her was above all the passion for the unity and integrity of India. In the perspective of history, she knew how India had been subjugated because of its inability to rectify internal weaknesses and to unitedly confront external dangers. She turned the searchlight on the internal social malaise that weakened the nation-the deprivation of the scheduled castes and the scheduled tribes, the social and economic backwardness of the minorities, communalism, casteism and narrow regional loyalties. Her effort throughout was to strengthen the national fabric. Her socio-economic programmes are her greatest contribution to national integration.

But she never forgot the threats to India, external and internal, direct and indirect, military and economic. She campaigned relentlessly to alert the nation to these dangers and toiled unremittingly to strengthen our defences. She had seen again and again how the independence and unity of nations had been suborned and subverted. She was determined not to let this happen to India. Nothing would induce her to accept the dilution of an iota of India’s unity and sovereignty, even at the cost of her life.

What of the future? Where do we go from here?

There is no rest for us. As Jawaharlal Nehru had said, “We cannot rest, for rest is betrayal of those who have gone and in going handed the torch of freedom to us to keep alight; it is betrayal of the cause we have espoused and the pledge we have taken; it is betrayal of the millions who never rest.” We cannot rest.

The history of our party tells us that, at each critical turning point, we took stock of our weaknesses and strengths to decide the direction we must take. The present situation demands a similar unsparing examination. Without self-introspection, without soul searching, movement will not be much avail. We must see ourselves in the mirror of truth. What have we done with the legacy of our great leaders?

To answer this question, I must delve into my own political experience, short though it is. When I started my political work, it was only with the motive of being by the side of my mother. She bore with stoic fortitude the irreparable loss of a son who had been a tower of strength. She gave me no directions, no formulate, no prescriptions. She just said, “Understand the real India, Its people, its problems.” So I plunged into work. Millions of faces in varying moods of joy and sorrow, of eager expectation, of triumph and defeat filled my being, till they merged into the face of mother India, proud, defiant, confident but also full of sad perplexity. Always, the unspoken question haunting her face: Whither India?

I was exhilarated by what had been achieved in the short period since Independence. I was also saddened by what might have been but was not, because of weaknesses in government and in the party. I kept my counsel to my-self, as I was an apprentice in the great school of politics.

After two years of incessant travelling, meeting people, reading and reflection, I felt I could go to her with my perceptions. Listening to me, she thought I had gained some understanding of the complexities of our society. And then she began to unburden herself. She spoke of India’s enduring strength and of her hopes for India, but also of her apprehensions and anxieties. She analysed with clinical precision how the entire system had been weakened from within, how the party had once again been infiltrated by vested interests who would not allow us to move, how patronage and graft had affected the national institutional framework, how nationalism and patriotism had ebbed, how the pettiness and selfishness of persons in political positions had ruptured social fabric. She was clear that if India had to keep her ‘tryst with destiny,’ so much had to change. And them, suddenly, she left us. Indiraji’s thoughts and reflections on the state of the nation are an abiding influence.

We have cherished our democracy. Democracy is our strength. In 1984, the people of India gave out party its largest ever majority. Their eloquent verdict strengthened then unity and integrity of India. A nation sorrowing over its beloved leader drew from its vast reserves of strength to protect the inheritance of its glorious freedom struggle.

We applied the lessons of the 1984 elections to the complex and difficult problems in Punjab and Assam. Our basic concern was to end any sense of alienation in the larger interests of national unity. We carried forward the process to reach understanding and harmony, to dispel mistrust and suspicion, and to seek the people’s mandate for progress through brotherhood. We had no narrow partisan considerations in view. The situation demanded that we rise above mere expediency. The Congress, with its century-old tradition of nationalism, put India first.

We have no illusions that all problems have been resolved. But the democratic way of nation building requires patience, perseverance and a spirit of conciliation. Those who have been entrusted with responsibility have to constantly keep in view the larger perspective of unity. They have to act in the same spirit in which we have acted, the spirit of the nationalism. Enduring unity comes from the willing cooperation of all.

We proclaim celebrate the unity of India. It is a fact of transcending significance. But is it not also a fact that most of us, in our daily lives, do not think of ourselves as Indians? We see ourselves as Hindus, Muslims or Christians, or Malyalees, Maharashtrians, Bengalis. Worse, we think of ourselves as Brahmins, Thakurs, Jats, Yadavas and so on and so forth. And we shed blood to uphold our narrow and selfish denominations. We are imprisoned by the narrow, domestic walls of religion, language, caste, and region, blocking out the clear view of a resurgent nation. Political parties, State Governments and social organisations promote policies, programmes and ideologies which divide brother from brother and sister from sister. Bonds of fraternity and solidarity yield to the onslaughts of meanness of mind and spirit. Is this the India for which Mahatma Gandhi and Indira Gandhi sacrificed their lives?

Turn to the great institutions of our country and you will see that too often, behind, their imposing facades, the spirit and substance lack vitality. The work they do sometimes seem strangely irrelevant to the primary concerns of the masses. Attempts are made to taint the electoral process at its very source. Issues of crucial national importance are frequently subordinated to individual sectional and regional interests. Our legislatures do not set standards for other groups to follow; they magnify manifold the conspicuous lack of a social ethic. A convenient conscience compels individuals to meander from ideology, to ideology seeking power, influence and riches. Political parties twist their tenets, enticed by opportunism. “The best lack all conviction and the worst are full of passionate intensity.

We are amongst the few to have the rule of law and an independent judiciary. But thousands wait for decades while an elaborate and arcane machinery grids ever so slowly. The poor have little hope of timely redress.

We value our free press. It made a magnificent contribution to our freedom struggle. After Independence, the national media have helped consolidate our unity and promote social and economic change. But the question the media need to put to themselves is: Does their contribution to nation building measure up to their role in the freedom struggle?

Our economy owes much to the enterprise of our industrialists. But there are some reputed business and industrial establishments which shelter battalions of law -breakers and tax evaders. We have industrialists untouched by the thrusting spirit of the great risk-takers and innovators. The trader’s instinct for quick profits prevails. They flourish on sick industries. Many have not cared learn the fundamental lesson that industrialisation springs from the development of indigenous technology, not from dependence on others. Industrial empire built on the shaky foundations of excessive protection, social irresponsibility, import orientation and corruption may not last long.

The trade have a glorious heritage of nationalism and of socially relevant radicalism. Today, they are a mere shadow of their past. They now protect the few who have, oblivious of millions who have not. They feel little concern of the creation of national wealth, only for a larger and larger share in it. Nothing is considered illegitimate if one marches under the right flag. Power without responsibility, rights without duties have come to be their prerogative. Will productivity arise from such stony soil ? Let us not forget that the poor and the unemployed have to sacrifice their development programmes to subsidise inefficient industry.

In the field of education, the nation has much to be proud of. Access to education has been widened immeasurably. Indian scholars are in the front rank of creative endeavour in the best institutions across the world. But the schools, the universities and the academies of the Republic, which should fill our minds with hope for tomorrow, cause us great concern. Teachers seldom teach and students seldom learn. Strikes, mass copying, agitations are more attractive alternatives. Where there should be experiment and innovation, there is obeisance to dead ritual and custom, smothering creativity and quest for knowledge and truth. Where there should be independence and integrity, there is the heavy hand of politics, caste and corruption. Where there should be a new integration between modern science and our heritage, there is a dull repetition of lifeless formulate. Millions are illiterate. Millions of children have never been inside a school.

And what of the iron frame of the system, the administrative and the technical services, the police and the myriad functionaries of the State? They have done so much and can do so much more, but as the proverb says there can be no protection if the fence starts eating the crop. We have Government servants who do not serve but oppress the poor and the helpless, police who do not uphold the law but shield the guilty, tax collectors who do not collect taxes but connive with those who cheat the State and whole legions Whose only concern is their private welfare at the cost of society. They have no work, ethic, no feeling for the public cause, no involvement in the future of the nation, no comprehension of national goals, no commitment to the values of modern India. They have only a grasping, mercenary outlook, devoid of competence, integrity and commitment.

How have we come to this pass?

We have looked at others. Now let us look at ourselves. What has become of our great organisation? Instead of a party that fired the imagination of the masses throughout the length and breadth of India, we have shrunk, losing touch with the toiling millions. It is not a question of victories and defeats in elections. For a democratic party, victories and defeats are part of its continuing political existence. But what does matter is whether or not we work among the masses, whether or not we are in tune with their struggles, their hopes and aspirations. We are a party of social transformation, but in our preoccupation with governance we are drifting away from the people. Thereby, we have weakened ourselves and fallen prey to the ills that the loss of invigorating mass contact brings.

Millions of ordinary Congress workers throughout the country are full of enthusiasm for the Congress policies and programmes. But they are handicapped, for on their backs ride the brokers of power and influence, who dispense patronage to convert a mass movement into a feudal oligarchy. They are self-perpetuating cliques who thrive by invoking the slogans of caste and religion and by enmeshing the living body of the Congress in their net of

avarice.

For such persons, the masses do not count. Their life style, their thinking – of lack of it, their self-aggrandisement, their corrupt ways, their linkages with the vested interests in society, and their sanctimonious posturing are wholly incompatible with work among the people. They are reducing the Congress organisation to shell from which the spirit of service and sacrifice has been empted.

As we have distanced ourselves from the masses, basic issues of national unity and integrity, social change and economic development recede into the background. Instead, phoney issues, shrouded in medieval obscurantism, occupy the centre of the stage. Our Congress workers, who faced the bullets of British imperialism, run for shelter at the slightest manifestation of caste and communal tension. Is this the path that Gandhiji, Panditji and Indiraji showed to a secular, democratic India?

We talk of the high principles and lofty ideals needed to build a strong and prosperous India. But we obey no discipline, no rule, follow no principle of public weal. Corruption is not only tolerated but even regarded as the hallmark of leadership. Flagrant contradiction between what we say and what we do has become our way of life. At every step, our aims and actions conflict. At every stage, our private self crushes our social commitment.

As action has diverged from precept, the ideology of the Congress has acquired the status of an heirloom, to be polished and brought out on special occasions. It must be a living force to animate the Congress workers in their day-to-day activity. Our ideology of nationalism, secularism, democracy and socialism is the only relevant ideology for our great country. But we are forgetting that we must take it to the masses, interpret its content in changing circumstances, and defend it against the attacks of our opponents.

Mahatma Gandhi visualised the Congress as a fighting machine. Time and again we have demonstrated our fighting qualities – in the great non-cooperation movements of the twenties and thirties, in the Quit India movement of 1942, in the fifties and sixties when we carried the message of socialism to every door, in 1969-71 when the vested interests had to be fought in Parliament, in the courts and in the streets and in 1977-79 when persecution and calumny were answered by thousands of brave satyagrahis throughout the country. This is our tradition. We have to revive this tradition to fight for the poor and the oppressed. Only by doing so shall we gain the strength to create the India of our dreams.

The revitalisation of our organisation is a historical necessity. At this critical juncture, there is no other political party capable of defending the unity and integrity of the country. There is no other party capable of taking the country forward to progress and prosperity. All other parties are shot through with internal contradictions. The sorry, un-edifying spectacle of their total incapacity, corruption, nepotism, hypocrisy has disfigured our political landscape. They have shown a cynical disregard for sensitive issues of national security. Some have not hesitated even to colude with anti-national elements. Their ideological roots are shallow, their political outlook circumscribed by region, caste and religion. Whatever they have come to power, they have retarded social and economic progress. They have no sense of history. Those who campaign for a weak Centre, campaign against the unity and integrity of India. Their slogans of welfare are spurious because true welfare comes from growth, which they have been busy destroying. It is the responsibility of the Congress to ensure that India is not left to the mercy of such forces.

We must once more generate a mass movement based on Congress ideology to fulfil this momentous task. Only with such a movement can we cleanse the party and the nation. The inner strength of our people, their unbounded patriotism, their unshakable commitment to social justice, and their aspiration for a strong and prosperous India will destroy the ugliness and enrich the creative ground of India’s greatness.

How will this mass movement of epic proportions arise? What are the essentials of the Build India Movements?

The country needs a politics of service to the poor. The country needs a politics based on ideology and programmes. To bring this about, we must break the nexus between political parties and vested interests. We will change the electoral laws to ensure cleaner elections. We will make political parties accountable for the funds they receive. We will wage an ideological war against those who exploit the poor in the name of caste and religion.

The Congress, the custodian of the national will and the sentinel of India’s freedom and unity, will be reorganised and revitalised. It will gather in its fold patriots of all sections and all communities. It will be the shield of the oppressed and the sword of the poor.

The war on corruption will go on without let or hindrance. The country needs a clean social and political environment the Congress is determined to give it.

Any denial of justice to the poor and the weak is in itself a crime. Our judicial institutions and legal systems have to be streamlined and strengthened. Sooner, rather than later. We shall put our best brains to work on this problem.

Our administrative machinery is cumbersome, archaic and alien to the needs and aspirations of the people. It has successfully resisted the imperative of change. It must learn to serve the people. It must become accountable for results. We need structural changes at all levels. We shall have them.

The India of the future is growing in her schools and universities. But our schools and universities do not relate to the vision of the future. They continue to function in the old grooves. A new blueprint for education is being designed. It will not come out of musty corridors of the educational establishments. It will only come from a movement involving teachers, students, parents, thinkers and philosophers. Not a movement to capture more privileges, but a movement that sees the future in relation to the present and the past, a movement that uses that vast untapped energy of millions to create a design suited to our needs.

As we look back on what we have achieved, one thought keeps coming back to mind. How must faster we would have developed had we succeeded in restricting the growth of our population. Progress would have been greater not in material terms alone, but in the quality of human life. That makes the family planning programme so crucial to our future development. We need a better strategy to achieve the national goal of a stable population, healthier and better educated.

The time has come to infuse new life into the struggle against poverty. Our anti-poverty programmes, notably the 20 Point Programme, have to come out of the grip of bureaucratic sloth and inefficiency. They have to become people’s programmes. All the elements – education, health and nutrition, family planning, land reforms and cooperatives, communications, agriculture, animal husbandry, industrial and rural crafts – all have to come together in an integrated programme to wipe out the age – old curse of poverty. The power to shape their own lives must lie with the people, not with bureaucrats and experts. Experts must help the people. Vibrant village panchayats must discuss, deliberate and decide the choices to be made. This is a challenge to the Congress cadres. It is up to us, the workers of this great organisation, spread in every village and every hamlet of India, to mobilise the people, to guide them, to stand by their side when they are denied their due, to fight for them and to see that resources are properly utilized, not frittered away on unproductive projects. This will keep our organisation in touch with the masses and will help us to become the true vehicle of change in rural India.

We are building an independent, self-reliant economy. We have already achieved much. But more hard work is required from everyone – from scientists and technologists, from the public sector, from the private sector, form industrial workers, from farmers, public servants, from traders, housewives and each one of us. We have to work hard to accelerate our agricultural and industrial development on the basis of our own resources. We have to produce more than we are doing today to invest more in future progress, and to support anti-poverty programmes. We must remember that self-reliance and eradication of poverty demands , indeed compel, the present generation to bear hardship and make sacrifices. Those who are employed have a duty to the future of India. They have to be more productive and consume less so that resources can be made available for investment and for programmes to help poor. This is a national duty – a patriotic duty.

Our life styles must change, Vulgar, Conspicuous consumption must go. Simplicity, efficiency and commitment to national goals hold the key to self-reliance. The Congress Ministers, Members of Parliament, Members of State Assemblies, party functionaries and leaders at all levels must set the example. Millions of people will follow them. Austerity and swadeshi will galvanise the masses to grow more, to produce more and to serve more.

Above all, we need to create a mass movement for strengthening India’s unity and integrity, for deepening our Indian ness. The Congress, which won freedom for India, the Congress, which has brought India to the threshold of greatness, is pre-eminently the party of India’s resurgent nationalism. Our nationalism is based on our rich diversity of cultures, languages and religions. The Congress represents the multi-faceted splendour of India.

Today, communal, casteist and regional forces, sustained by external elements, are undermining our unity.

We have to be on our guard. We have to carry the message of nationalism and unity to all. We have to overcome divisive forces. Let the saga of our freedom struggle be our inspiration. Let thousands and thousands of Congress workers fan out into every village, every urban centre to revive the traditions of our glorious struggle for freedom in which, all differences were transcended. We shall persuade. We shall educate. We shall bind people together. But let the divisive forces understand quite clearly that the Congress, with the strength of the masses behind it, will crush with all its might the designs of anti-national elements.

Friends,

A century of achievement ends. A century of endeavour beckons to us. Our resplendent civilization, with unbroken continuity from the third millennium B.C. looks ahead to peaks of excellence in the third millennium A.D.

It falls to us to work for India’s greatness. A great country is not one, which merely has a great past. Out of that past must arise, a glorious future.

Let us build an India.

– Proud of her Independence;

– Powerful in defence of her freedom;

– Strong, self-reliant in agriculture, industry and front-rank

technology

– United by bonds transcending barriers of caste, creed and religion;

– Liberated from the bondage of poverty, and of social and

economic inequality;

An India

– Disciplined & efficient;

– Fortified by ethical and spiritual values;

– A fearless force for peace on earth;

– The School of the world, blending the inner repose of the spirit, with material progress;

– A new civilization, with the strength of our heritage, the

creativity of the spring time of youth and the unconquerable spirit of our people.

Great achievements demand great sacrifices. Sacrifices not only from our generation and generations gone by, but also from generations to come.

Civilizations are not built by just one or two generations. Civilizations are built by the ceaseless toil of a succession of generations. With softness and sloth, civilizations succumb. Let us beware of decadence.

We must commit ourselves to the demanding task of making India a mighty power in the world, with all the strength and the compassion of her great culture.

To this cause, I pledge myself.

JAI HIND.