Namaskar to all.
When we will be entering, after 2 days, 75thyearof our Republic, when I entered the premises, I had the good fortune to be blessed when I paid my tributes to the architect of Indian constitution,Dr Br Ambedkar. He means a lot to all of us.Not only he was architect of Constitution of India, his rise to the position was not easy. Tt was cesarean, very difficult, he faced great problems, still took them in strides.
When I became Member of Parliament in 1989 and that was long time after we adopted the Indian Constitution, I looked at the list of those who had been given Bharat Ratna. Dr. Br Ambedkar was not one of them. It was my good fortune to be part of that government and part of the Parliament that did justice to one of the greatest sons of Bharat by awarding him in 1990, the Bharat Ratna. He should have been awarded Bharat Ratna much earlier.
In the same stream, as indicated by the Hon’ble Minister and for the same cause, a great justice has been done to another great son of the soil from Bihar, Shri Karpoori Thakurji. These two distinguished persons, awarded posthumously, were entitled to this embellishment, the highest civilian award during their lifetime.
AmritKaal has been utilised as a great occasion to remember those who made us proud Indian. ParakramDiwas, we had the occasion to celebrate it yesterday, it took so long to remember the contribution of Netaji but soothing to note that in past decade, justice has been done to Netaji in various ways. Visit of the Hon’ble Prime Minister to Andaman and Nicobar Islands, naming those islands in 75th celebration of Netaji’s army took place. The Prime Minister was there at the Fort, a great recognition for our heroes of freedom. The list is long but our boys and girls came to know as if it was in single digit. We have rediscovered our Bharat emotively, nationally and we have Janjatiya Gaurav Divas- 15th November in the memory of BhagwanBirsa Munda.
Look at the way we have put our Bharat on global platform. Yoga is something which we had in us for thousands of years but gratitude to Indian Prime Minister, Prime Minister of a country that is home to 1/6th of community, that he could make this declaration in United Nation in the shortest time & the largest number of nations came forward to support and 21st June is International Yoga Day celebrated in every nook and corner of the planet. The last one indeed was historic. The premises were of the United Nation, it was our Prime Minister there and we had the good fortune that the entire world participated. I was there at the national event at Jabalpur. A great day. Look at another great milestone in space on 23rd August 2023, because Chandrayan-3, backed by the power of both genders landed on the South pole of moon.
Look at another significant day. We waited for so long to do justice to half of humanity, particularly in the last three decades, efforts were made to secure justice to our sisters and mothers. They must become participants in governance by way of constitution mechanism that was expressed byDrAmbedkar Ji is fructified and note two days in the history 28th September, 2023 and 21 September 2023 when Nari Shakti Vandan Bill was passed by both houses of the Parliament.
Our constitution is spinally very strong. Our constitution has enabled us to traverse the difficult terrain and record… epochal development. If we look at our constitutional journey, we did have a dark chapter which we can never have now. No one on the planet can generate a system, a mechanism, pernicious ecosystem depriving human rights, putting people in jail by thousands with no rights available to them. I am referring to the declaration of emergency. I want boys and girls to know when the President signed it, what power it had? How this could have happened? Constitutional prescription is loud and clear that the President is bound by the advice tendered by the Council of Ministers. That was the darkest, shameful period of our constitutional history and a blemish on our otherwise sublime Civilization journey of 5000 years.
This journey of 75 years and little before that… midnight of 14th and 15th August, we had ‘tryst with destiny’. Our Parliament met at midnight, the first Prime Minister ended a speech that started our journey.Then we had another tryst with destiny of different nature which, in one of my addressed, I had quoted as ‘tryst with modernity’ that has changed the entire landscape of our business our governance. This ‘tryst with modernity’ was also at midnight. It was the night intervening 30th June and 1st July, 2017.My good friend and great son of this country, ShriArunJaitley is not amongst us today, he worked hard for it. The Hon’ble Prime Minister and the President being there, unfolded the world’s largest and most impactful transformational tax regime, GST. It was at midnight this was ‘tryst with modernity’.
We should never be against of criticism, criticism helps us, criticism is positive, criticism gives energy… but condemnation, thoughtless condemnation and look at the wonders GST has done now. When we go into record collections every month, we are proud of it. Goods and Service Tax has indeed become Good and Simple Tax.
Friends, tryst with destiny, tryst with modernity, and we had on 22nd January 2024 ‘tryst with a divinity’. The day is etched in the history of this country for several reasons.
The consecration ceremony of RamLalla held at Ayodhya marks three things fundamentally. One, this country believes in Rule of Law. The passage to construction of Ram Lalla temple was hurtful to the sentiments of millions of people in the country, and many outside. Every day was very painful. Still in this land of Gandhi and Buddha, in this land which has civilizational depth off 1000s of years. It was in accordance with law and that was a great achievement.
Second, it reflected the will of the framers of the Indian Constitution. I am pained and I will appeal to the honorable Law Minister… young boys and girls are not exposed to the Constitution, which has been signed by the members of the Constituent Assembly. That document, Hon’ble Ministeryou will find is a different one. That document contains 22 miniatures. They are positioned thoughtfully above each part of the Indian Constitution.When you had the occasion to see a small film indicating those things, I saw what was there in the pillar at Somnath? It was there. If you look at the first part, second part, it reflects our Gurukul and ancient civilization if you look at them.
The part-3 concerning the fundamental rights… Fundamental rights are quintessential to democracy. They are inalienable facets of democratic values. You cannot claim to be living in a democracy if you do not enjoy fundamental rights. The emergency was the darkest period because fundamental rights were sabotaged. In that part, you have miniature of Ram,Sita and Lakshman coming back to Ayodhya.
Our founding Fathers of the constitutional realized this essence of our culture. When we go to Part 4 – Directive Principles of State policy, we have in the miniature indicating Lord Krishna giving his advice at Kurukshetra to Arjun and you all know it. But you have not been able to see it because it is not the part of the books. I think, the Honorable Minister will take initiative to ensure that the country is made available in authentic form, only that constitution which has been given to us by our founding fathers and constitutionally amended further that will have 22 miniatures.
We need to be extremely alert, apart from our Fundamental Right as to Fundamental Duties, it’s time for us that we must turn out to be very good citizens. I am from that perspective; I will make an appeal- what can an individual do?An individual must immediately go to a new part which is added – part 4A – Fundamental Duties.Read them, 11 of them initially there, when you will read 11 Fundamental Duties, you will find these are fundamental to our daily life. It takes no expense we can do it. we must always take pride in being Indians.
भारतीयता हमारी पहचान है। इस महान देश भारत के हम नागरिक हैं। इसकी अप्रत्याशित, अकल्पनीय प्रगति से हम अभिभूत हैं। दुनिया अचंभित है, भारत का लोहा दुनिया मान चुकी है। दुनिया के संस्थान क्या कहते हैं भारत के बारे में… आज के समय में भारत दुनिया में सबसे तेज गति से बढ़ने वाली आर्थिक शक्ति है।
We, today, friends are the 5th largest global economy. We have marched ahead of Canada, UK, France… in two or three years... marching ahead of Germany and Japan, we will be third largest global economy.
हमारे संविधान ने हमें सब कुछ दिया है। यदि तीन संस्थाएं कार्यपालिका, विधायिका और न्यायपालिका अपने दायरे में रहकर मर्यादित आचरण कर आगे बढ़ेंगी तो भारतीय लोग इतने प्रतिभाशाली हैं कि कुछ भी उनके लिए असंभव नहीं है।
I appeal from this platform that we are lucky to have the highest brains heading these organisations. The executive is being led by the Prime Minister, a man who is visionary, who thinks big, achieves big, achieves with expedition, achieves for one and all, achieves at a dimension which we never imagined. We have robust judicial system we have sound legislature.
Let me remind you, boys and girls, when our constitution was framed, you must find out who were the people who framed the constitution? You will be enlightened to know that none of them was directly elected by the people, they were indirectly elected one category. The large category, the second category was representatives of princely states and the third- the commissionerate- one was from Rajasthan also.
When the Constitution Assembly was in progress, we had the division of the country. They were fired by the zeal of nationalism. They faced some of the greatest contentious issues, divisive issues of language, of boundaries. They overcame all those things not by disruption, not by disturbance, but by dialogue, debate, discussion, deliberation. Therefore, the segment to which I belong by virtue of being the Chairman of Rajya Sabha, I sometimes wonder when the executive is marching on fast track, earning global laurels, giving relief to more than a billion people,making available an ecosystem where every Indian can unleash his or her energy, exploit potential, realize ambitions and dreams, where a mechanism has been developed where power corridors have been sanitized of corrupt elements. When there is a rigorous enforcement of the constitutional essence of equality before law, there is none who cannot be beyond this reach of law, everyone is. Some people who are in doubt. I am pained with event that take place when the destruction of public property takes place, we take on to law enforcing agency and declare that we are one because the barricades have collapsed.
There will always be issues among three organs of state because we are in dynamic world but issues have to be ironed out, have to be moderated. They don’t have to be on public platform, they have to be in structured manner.But with the Legislature, we need to do some homework, how efficient your legislature are?
Boys and girls, it is in your hands, you will have to take a call.Would you want Parliament or assembly to be dysfunctional?Would you want them to be ravaged by disruption, disturbances? You certainly will not. There should be debate, dialogue. We had a great legislation earlier we had Dand-Vidhan, now we have Nyaya-Vidhan but to my utter pain the legal luminaries, none came forward to Rajya Sabha to make a contribution when you have opportunity, a historic opportunity when epochal legal mechanical is being developed, we are being a unshackled from Colonial regime. Why did not make your inputs available, your participation was not there?
Young boys and girls we maybe gone, we will not be around…. most of us when Bharat @2047, but each one of you who is present in this house is a foot soldier of the journey. You are taking glory of the Bharat, you will be ensuring it will be incremental trajectory.You will ensure rightful place in the community of nation. What Bharat will be @2047 and therefore there are issues on which your silence will resonate in your ears for years to come. If you find something unacceptable please go by dicta of your conscious spirit of nationalism, believe in your nation and try to put in correctional mechanism.
इसीलिये अंत में, मैं यह कहूंगा हमारे संविधान का सबसे बड़ा सम्मान हम तब कर सकते हैं जब नागरिक की हैसियत से 24*7, हम भारत माँ की सेवा में लगे रहें. हमारे देश की प्रगति एक महायज्ञ है, इस महायज्ञ में हर किसी की आहुति की आवश्यकता है. संस्थागत आहुति आएगी, पर सबसे बड़ा योगदान आम नागरिक का है और इसका कारण है … There is no one more critically significantly stakeholder in governance than boys and girls like you. Your stake in the governance is maximum. You would never want corruption, you want krishi to flourish, you want opportunities before you.
We are a country that is home to startups. We are a country that is home to unicorns, unparalleled to the world. If you have an idea put in action.
वो भारत के संविधान का सबसे बड़ा सम्मान होगा, मेरे मन में कोई संकट नहीं है कि भारत के उत्थान में जो भी कोई बाधा बनेगा, ये उत्थान का तूफान है। ये तूफान पॉजिटिविटी का है, ये तूफान ईश्वरीय शक्ति के द्वारा दिया गया है, ये तुफान दुनिया के हित के लिए है, हमारे 5000 साल की संस्कृति की जो विरासत है उसके नमन का है. It is Unstoppable. Rise of Bharat is Unstoppable. Let us contribute to nuclear speed,rocket speed of this growth.
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MS/JK/RC
