It was on this sad day 16 years ago that Indiraji left us. She left behind a legacy, the central strand of which was national integration.

The preservation of the unity of India has been the outcome of a millennial tradition of celebrating our diversity. The essential truth of our nationhood is that the imposition of uniformity disrupts our unity, while recognition and respect for its diversity strengthens it. This concept of our nationhood is more fiercely under challenge today than at any time in the past half century. It is, therefore, incumbent on all of us to relentlessly confront the alternative interpretations of our nationhood which can only lead to disintegration.

Prof. Satish Dhawan, whom we are honouring today, is an exemplar of the values which have made our contemporary nationhood reflect our civilizational values. For three uninterrupted decades he worked at the Indian Institutes of Science, Bangalore. Of these, he headed the Institute as Director for as many as 18 years. Through the last of these three decades, he concurrently served as Chairman of our Space Commission.

It was not only his impressive contribution to the conquest of space by India which distinguished him, but also his dedication to the peaceful uses of outer space. It is in this dedication to the larger cause of humanity that the integrated his immense talents as a scientist with a wider concern for the welfare and longevity of humankind. He saw at once the vast benefits which the many uses of space could confer along with the vast potential for self-destruction which the same platform offered. He consistently refused to be diverted into militarising space, concentrating on the constructive work of building and operationalising communications satellites, as well as remote sensing satellites. Today, most dimensions of our economic life are touched by the pioneering efforts of Prof. Dhawan. Thus did he integrate a poor, developing country into the highest reaches of world science.

I was under his stewardship that India launched its first successful launch vehicle, SLV-III, which put into orbit around earth the Indian satellite Rohini RS-I. Speaking about this giant achievement, Indira Gandhi said, in words which bear repetition today, particularly when we honour the contribution of Prof. Dhawan :

"I should like to reaffirm that Indian science is dedicated to peace; its motive is development. All the major achievements of Indian science so far have occurred in its search for peaceful uses and not as a spin-off of defence requirements. This is true of Pokhran and of Sriharikota."

In recognizing your outstanding contribution to Indian science, we are stressing in the evolving Indian context the priority we must continue to accord to the peaceful uses of science and technology.

Jawaharlal Nehru, Indira Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi after her, saw in science and technology the key to ending India's backwardness. Where many developing countries felt the luxury of research into frontier technologies should be left to those most able to afford it, our leaders accorded pride of place and high priority to frontline science. The Indian Space Research Organisation was one significant outcome of this attachment to science and our refusal to leave research on the frontier to the developed nations alone. Prof. Dhawan was the first of our Directors of ISRO. His service at the head of the organisation for ten long years is a high water-mark in the emergence of India as a leading world scientific power. As Indira Gandhi remarked :

"Neither true defence nor true development can be brought or borrowed. We have to grow them ourselves."

There has been considerable criticism in recent years, much of it justified, of India having accorded excessive attention to higher education to the neglect of primary education. Any such observation would, of course, have to be qualified by a recognition of the Constitutional dispensation under which much of higher education is a central responsibility while primary education falls in the state list. To some extent, therefore, the contrast between our achievements on the higher education front and our relative lapses in primary education are a reflection of the more substantial achievements of the central government in comparison to those of state governments. I am sure recent moves to make the panchayats the fulcrum of primary education in the country will dramatically improve our performance on this score. Therefore, I would plead that while greater attention to primary education is essential, this must not be at the cost of higher education. For it is the outstanding intellectual achievements of the best of our brains that has endowed this country with a measure of self-reliance in science as well as positioned us in the vanguard of the information technology revolution now sweeping the world.

This vindicates our investment in the institutes of technology, colleges of engineering, ITIs and polytechnics. Panditji was right in stressing the scientific temper as the mindset essential for development. And were it not for Rajivji and his "computer boys", India would hardly be as well positioned as it is in not missing out on the IT Revolution as we missed out on the Industrial Revolution.

The scientific temper is not only the essential prerequisite for development, it is also the most effective antidote to the prejudices which stand in the way of national integration. Prejudices are irrational and prejudice based on religion, caste and region the most irrational of all. It is an astonishing achievement that we have not only maintained the unity of our nation but strengthened it over the years. The bedrock of our nationhood is secularism. The national consensus on secularism has been most seriously challenged in the 90s. It is a challenge which our people have repudiated. Yet, at all times, we must be vigilant. For it is when we are complacent that communalism emerges from the darkness. Prof. Dhawan has not only been a distinguished scientist, he has also been an inspiring teacher. And in developing the minds of the young, he has not only taught them the secrets of science but also the ethics and ethos of what makes for a good citizen.