III. CHALLENGES AHEAD

Much has been achieved in the last fifty years. There is much we can feel proud of. But the job is half-done. There is a vast unfinished agenda. India faces a multitude of challenges - political, social, economic - as she stands on the threshold of the 21st century and of the fourth or firth millennium of here ancient civilisation.

At this crucial juncture of our history, the most urgent task is to have a government in New Delhi that will last the full five years. But there is something more. The government must have a coherent and clear vision of what needs to be done and must have the ability to get done.

India’s foremost economic challenge is to accelerate investment and economic growth so that we can abolish poverty in the next decade or so. This growth will come from agriculture, industry and other sectors. This growth will come from new investments, from new technologies, from productivity and competitiveness.

India’s foremost political challenge is to have a responsive, responsible and representative government at all levels. The bonds of unity in this diverse and variegated land have to be strengthened while at the same time being sensitive to and accommodative of local sentiments and aspirations.

India’s foremost social challenge is to preserve and enrich her secular heritage and maintain and promote harmony among the different religions, communities, linguistic groups and regions that make up its kaleidoscopic culture. Equality of opportunity in terms education and health for all our people must be assured with redoubled vigour and determination.

The Congress has a vision of India. A vision of an India that is economically resurgent and that is creating at least 1 crore jobs every year.

A vision of an India which has abolished poverty, as we have known it for centuries, in the next fifteen years. A vision of an India where all its citizens, but particularly its girls and women belonging to the dalit, adivasi, other backward class and minority communities have access to the best education and health facilities by, at most, the end of the next decade.

A vision of an India that has provided basic amenities to all its citizens in tangible measure and her citizen leads a life of dignity.

A vision of India which has extended food and social security to the most vulnerable and disadvantaged sections of her society.

A vision of an India rooted in her tradition but at the same time having the self-confidence and the strength to imbibe what the world has to offer.

A vision of an India at peace with itself, of an India driven by the spirit of tolerance, liberalism and mutual acceptance.

The Congress can do no better than recall the immortal lines of Gurudev Rabindranath Tagore written over eighty years ago but that resonate even today.

Where the mind is without fear and the head is held high;
Where knowledge is free;
Where the world has not been broken up into fragments by narrow domestic walls;
Where words come out from the depths of truth;
Where tireless striving stretches its arms towards perfection;
Where the clear stream of reason has not lost its way into the dreary desert sand of dead habit;
Where the mind is led forward by Thee into ever-widening though and action;
Into that Heaven of freedom, my father
Let my country awake.