My Vision

Like all of you, I am a proud Indian. I cherish India as a nation State because it has succeeded as the world’s largest democracy where many other nations have failed. The resilience of our democracy is truly remarkable. Except for a brief aberration when the dark clouds of emergency hovered on the horizon, our journey on the path of democracy has taken us from strength to strength. We have surmounted many challenges on the way in a spirit of unity and amity. This great country is unique for the diversity in language, culture and religion which in a subtle way binds all of us in to an essential oneness of being an Indian first and foremost.

Today, the challenges before us are even bigger and more complicated. Democracy confers on every citizen the right to equality and guarantees liberty of thought and freedom of speech and expression. It mandates the State to take steps to enable every citizen to access opportunities in education, employment and healthcare. While we have succeeded in some measure to achieve the goals enshrined in our Constitution in the past 60 years or so, much remains to be done. People’s aspirations today are more visible than ever before. Because of the slow pace at which things have improved for the common man in the past few decades, there is also a growing impatience and a sense of restlessness.

I have pondered over the issues confronting us as a Nation all these years. In my vision for India, there shall be a welfare State which works for the poorest of the poor and the disabled and the downtrodden. For such a welfare State to be functional, it needs large resources which have to be mobilised through robust revenue models. And for garnering revenues, we need long term sustained economic growth . The State must fulfil its role as a facilitator for economic growth by creating the right environment for stimulating entrepreneurship and investment. The long term India story is intact even today. What has happened over the past couple of years are a series of blips which cry for course correction on an imminent basis. And the truth is that they can be set right. True we need the gumption to bring about difficult changes . There are sacrifices to be made on this way but of narrow vested interests.

Since I hail from a remote hamlet, lack of basic amenities and the fruits of development not reaching the rural areas had a great impact on me. The desire for bringing about changes in the system and the administrative priorities and attaching utmost importance to the development of villages was always forefront in my mind. The experience of early days when I was forced to walk for three kilometers to attend a school that had no facilities, where classes were run under the open sky and the days when I used to study in the light of a lantern due to lack of electricity in the villages, beside trekking long distances for drinking water, had an enduring effect on me. These experiences haunted me always and made me think of what was to be done for providing basic amenities for the development of villages. The future of our nation lies in the upliftment of rural areas and enabling them to lead a respectable life.

We as a nation have immense potential to rise and beat the odds, we have done it in the past and shall do it in the future. I sincerely appeal all my countrymen to contribute towards nation building.