Address by Mrs Sonia Gandhi, chairperson, Rajiv Gandhi Foundation

On the occasion of the giving away of Rajiv Gandhi Awards for Excellence

Kuwait, August 29, 1998

Your excellency Sheikh Mubarak Fahd Al-Sabah,

Mr. Markos Williams, Chairman and Members of the Rajiv Gandhi Awards Committee,

Your Excellencies,

Distinguished guests,

Ladies and Gentlemen

It gives me great pleasure to be here with all of you today. My congratulations to the five winners of the Rajiv Gandhi Award for Excellence. I am sure that your achievement will motivate and inspire others as well.

Just nine days ago, Rajiv Gandhi would have turned 54. It is seven years since he left us, but the ideas he espoused the causes he championed the policies that he enunciated and the programmes he launched are now an essential part of Indian political, economic and social life.

Rajivji initiated the process of economic liberalisation way back in 1985. He was criticised heavily but today all political parties say they are committed to economic reforms.

Rajivji ushered India into the telecom, electronics and computer age. He was mocked and accused of being elitist. Today, the government talks about India becoming a world superpower in information technology.

Rajivji gave a new vision to Indian science and technology. for him, science and technology had a fundamental social purpose going beyond atomic anergy, space and defence.

He started a number of programmes to mobilise science and technology in areas like water supply, sanitation, literacy, immunisation, agriculture and communication.

Rajivji raalised that in a country such as ours, so complex, so large and varied the people had to be empowered to govern themselves. Hence, he spearheaded a crusade to strengthen panchayats in rural India and nagarpalikas in urban India so that true local and self-government would emerge. Rajivji's crusade is now enshrined in our Constitution.

Most of all, Rajiv Gandhi stood for excellence, for the spirit of inquiry and questioning, for the modernisation of mindsets and for the harmonious blending of modernity with tradition. We are proud of our brothers and sisters who live and work in Kuwait and in other places in this region.

Your hardwork, your professional contributions are well recognised. Your savings and remittances are strengthening our own economy also, both at the state and national level.

Friends, it is but natural that you would expect me to speak on the current political and economic situation in India. I am tempted to do so. But I also believe that criticisms are best made within the country. Once we leave its shores, we leave politics and differences behind. We become Indians, irrespective of political persuasions and ideologies. Hence, I am sure you will bear with me if I resist the temptation of speaking on the current scene at home.

But let me say this that we are engaged in the historic task of revitalising and rejuvenating that great national institution, namely the Congress Party. Even our opponents admit and accept the need for a strong and vibrant Congress. The reason for this is simple. It is only the Congress that represents respects and celebrates the diversity of India in all its colours and all its hues. The task of rebuilding the Congress will not be easy. The obstacles are numerous. But we are determined to succeed. I invite all of you to join us in this noble endeavour.

We need more good people, more educated people, more professional people, more skilled people in our politics. Politics is not just about elections and tickets and ministerships. It is about making a difference to the lives of millions of the disadvantaged, the deprived and the discriminated. It is about having a higher vision of service and sacrifice. It is about being an instrument of social change and transformation. Let me also admit that while politics is important, we must not neglect the task of strengthening the institutions of civil society.

Here too, all of you can make significant contributions - and I don't mean only of a financial kind! In fact, in India there is too often a tendency to look at government for everything. Government is critical but so also are the contributions that can be made by non-governmental bodies, voluntary agencies, social activist groups, consumer organisations and peoples' movements.

The Rajiv Gandhi Foundation is playing its part in areas like health, the welfare of the handicapped and the disabled, literacy and rural development. Our Foundation is neigher rich in resources nor somparable in reach to old, well-established Foundations the world over. But we are able to express through our work Rajiv Gandhi's compassion for all who are deprived and disadvantaged.

Our rural libraries project has brought continuing education and enlightenment to the doorstep of many who might have otherwise lapsed into illiteracy or forgot their schooling in the absence of an opportunity to keep in touch with the written world. We counsel the families of those whose near and dear ones are terminal patients of cancer of AIDS. We promise a better tomorrow to the physically disabled.

The Foundation also reaches out to women in need and to children - street children who have been abandoned by their families and those left without either or both parents by the tragic consequences of terrorism.

I just spoke about our diversity. Diversity has defined Indian civilisation for almost 5000 years. But as we stand on the threshold of the sixth millennia of our existence, this diversity threatens to divide us. The basic characteristic of our civilisation has been one of tolerance, accommodation, assimilation and give-and-take. While other multi-ethnic societies faded away, India has been a living example of not just Unity in diversity but also a shining embodiment of Unity through Diversity.

But we should not be complacent. The diversity and plurality that has given us life and that has sustanied us for so long is under grave threat both from within and from outside. Fundamentalism of different varieties and dogma of various kinds are sought to be imposed. India is sought to be fractured on the basis of religion, cast, community, language and region.

As a society, as a country, as a people, this is our most serious challenge. But India is in great ferment. If you can look beyond the day's headlines or political manoeuvrings, you cansee three fundamental transitions taking place all over the country for which the Congress party is responsible. These are economic growth, political decentralisation and social empowerment.

There is a new aspiration in India, an aspiration being brought about by growing literacy, increasing urbanisation, the spread of agricultural prosperity and the proliferation of modern communications. And to urderpin it all, there is a profound demographic shift that is taking place. 65% of India is now below the age of 25 and it is this generation on whom our future rests. The nation needs the energy and dynamism of the young, and the experience and wisdom of our older generations. Together we can fulfil the vision of our founding fathers and our great leaders since independence. And in this scheme of things, all of you, away from the shores of India, have a central role, a great contribution to make.

Let me once again congratulate the Indian community here for instituting the Rajiv Gandhi awards. Each of the five individuals selected for the awards has made outstanding contributions and will, I am sure, serve as role models.

I would like to convey my personal felicitations to Sister Bernita, KP Mohanan, Paresh Pewekar, Abey Varicad and Dr. Riyaz Ahmed Khan, who are the recipients of these awards. Let me also say how pleased I am to be in Kuwait, a country with which India has had direct contact for centuries. It has been said that your distant ancestors were among the first humans to set in motion that process, which is now called civilisation.

Today our links are close and durable. You have provided employment and well being to so many of our people. For this we are grateful. We thank our hosts and assure them that, inspired by the example of those distinguished sons and daughters of India who are today receiving the Rajiv Gandhi awards for excellence, the Indian Community in this country will continue maintaining the highest standards of excellence in all areas where Indians and Kuwaitis together are striving for a better tomorrow - for Kuwait, for India, for the world.

Thank you.

Jai Hind.