President's Secretariat
ADDRESS TO THE NATION BY THE HON’BLE PRESIDENT OF INDIA, SHRI RAM NATH KOVIND, ON THE EVE OF INDIA’S 72ND INDEPENDENCE DAY
Dear Fellow Citizens
My greetings to yous every bit nosotros consummate 71 years every bit an independent nation. Tomorrow nosotros volition commemorate our 72nd Independence Day. For every Indian, whether living at dwelling solid or anywhere else inwards the world, August xv is sacred. It is marked on our calendars every bit a celebration of our sovereignty. We unfurl our national flag alongside corking joy as well as enthusiasm inwards workplaces, municipalities, panchayats, colleges, schools, homes as well as neighborhoods. Our Tricolor is a symbol of our national pride. It is a constant reminder of our striving as well as our self-belief. It is a twenty-four sixty minutes menses to expect dorsum alongside satisfaction as well as gratitude for what nosotros take away hold been able to attain due to the efforts of successive generations of our elders. And it is a twenty-four sixty minutes menses to renew our resolve to fill upwards the gaps that yet remain inwards our state edifice projection – gaps that our talented immature people volition no dubiety fill.
Freedom came to our province on the Midnight of August 14-15, 1947. It was the outcome of years as well as decades as well as centuries of sacrifice as well as valour on the business office of our ancestors as well as our revered liberty fighters. These were men as well as women of rare courage as well as foresight. They came from all regions of the country, all sections of society, all communities as well as all social as well as economical groups. They could easily take away hold compromised as well as settled for some personal benefit, but they did not. Their commitment to Republic of Republic of India – to a free, sovereign, plural as well as egalitarian Republic of Republic of India – was absolute. It was my privilege to laurels these liberty fighters on the anniversary of ‘Quit Republic of Republic of India Day’ on ninth August inwards Rashtrapati Bhavan.
We are fortunate that nosotros take away hold inherited the legacy of such remarkable patriots. They left us alongside a gratis India, but they likewise left us alongside unfinished tasks for the evolution of our society, for the empowerment of the proverbial final person, for their liberation from poverty, as well as social as well as economical inequality. Every breath inwards our collective life every bit a state is a tribute to our liberty fighters – as well as a commitment to accomplish whatever is yet unaccomplished.
If nosotros define liberty inwards narrow, political terms, as well as so August 15, 1947, marks a closure. It was the twenty-four sixty minutes menses the political struggle against an majestic mightiness culminated inwards success as well as inwards our Independence Day. But liberty is a broader concept. It is non fixed as well as finite. Freedom is a constant as well as relentless endeavour. Even decades afterward 1947, each 1 of us tin contribute inwards the trend of a liberty fighter. We tin produce so if nosotros expand the frontiers of liberty as well as of chance for our swain Indians as well as our honey India.
Our farmers grow nutrient for tens of thousands of swain citizens whom they take away hold non individually met as well as volition never meet. They are upholding our liberty past times ensuring nutrient safety as well as nutrition for our children. As nosotros assist our farmers past times providing access to engineering as well as other facilities for enhanced productivity as well as enhanced incomes, nosotros endure upwards to the principles of our liberty struggle.
Our Armed Forces stand upwards guard valiantly on our borders, upwards inwards the brutal climate of the mountains or nether the blazing sun, or inwards the skies or at sea. They are upholding our liberty past times ensuring safety from external threats. As nosotros give them improve weapons as well as equipment, construct provide chains for such equipment inwards Republic of Republic of India itself, or ensure welfare benefits for our soldiers, nosotros endure upwards to the principles of our liberty struggle.
Our police describe as well as paramilitary forces accept on a diversity of challenges. In battling terrorism, inwards fighting offense as well as law as well as monastic say disturbances, or fifty-fifty inwards helping ordinary citizens past times asset their hands patch they cross a flooded street. In doing this, they are upholding our civic freedom. As nosotros improve their professional person as well as personal conditions, nosotros endure upwards to the principles of our liberty struggle.
Women take away hold a special exercise inwards our society. The expansion of liberty inwards our province inwards many senses amounts to the expansion of liberty for women inwards our country. This is truthful whether nosotros reckon them every bit mothers, sisters, daughters or simply every bit women who are entitled to a life of their choosing – as well as deserving of the chance as well as the safety to fulfil their potential. They could produce this every bit sheet-anchors of our families or every bit absolutely critical entrants to our institutions of higher learning as well as our workforce. The pick is theirs; every bit a state as well as every bit a guild nosotros must ensure that they take away hold the correct as well as the mightiness to exercise that choice.
As nosotros accept this procedure further, past times facilitating credit for women-run enterprises as well as start-ups or past times easier availability of LPG inwards millions of kitchens as well as millions of homes, nosotros endure upwards to the principles of our liberty struggle.
Our immature people, both boys as well as girls, correspond the hope as well as optimism of India. Our liberty struggle saw the active participation of the immature as well as the old, but its unloosen energy was provided past times the young. They chose dissimilar modes or activism inwards their request for liberty – but their resolve as well as their idealism, their passion for a gratis India, for a improve India, for a to a greater extent than equal India, was nonnegotiable.
Today, every bit nosotros ignite the burn downwardly inside our youth, past times edifice capacities for skilling as well as scholarship; for technology, applied scientific discipline as well as entrepreneurship; for inventiveness as well as crafts; for playing music as well as producing mobile apps, for excelling inwards sports, nosotros are harnessing the unlimited human majuscule of our youth. In doing so, nosotros endure upwards to the principles of our liberty struggle.
I take away hold given only a few examples; in that location could endure many more. The reality is that every Indian who does his or her task alongside sincerity as well as commitment, who contributes to guild past times beingness truthful to a professional person ethic, endure it the doctor’s ethic, the nurse’s ethic, the teacher’s ethic, Blue Planet servant’s ethic, the manufacturing works life worker’s ethic, the business-person’s ethic, the ethic of those who take away hold to attention for ageing parents who brought them upwards alongside love as well as sacrifice – each of these as well as many others are inwards their ain agency upholding the values of freedom. They are providing the fruits as well as goods as well as services of liberty to swain citizens. Every citizen of Republic of Republic of India who does his or her duty sincerely, fulfils a personal as well as professional person obligation as well as keeps to a given discussion is, at a telephone substitution level, upholding the principles of our liberty struggle. I would fighting that every Indian who does non saltation the queue as well as respects the civic infinite as well as rights of those ahead inwards the line likewise lives upwards to the principles of our liberty struggle. It’s a real small-scale gesture. Let us essay as well as abide past times it.
Dear Fellow Citizens
You may wonder if what I take away hold said so far would non take away hold held truthful inwards the years gone by, peradventure 10 or 20 years agone or fifty-fifty earlier. To some extent, it for certain would. Even so, nosotros are at a juncture inwards our history that is real dissimilar from whatever menses nosotros take away hold so far experienced. We are at the cusp of achieving many of our long-awaited goals. Universal access to electricity, the elimination of opened upwards defecation, the elimination of homelessness, the real elimination of extreme poverty is achievable as well as attainable. We are at a pivotal moment. Let contentious issues as well as extraneous debates non distract us.
After 4 years, nosotros volition endure mark the 75th anniversary of Independence. In less than thirty years, our people volition celebrate the 100th anniversary of Republic of Republic of India every bit a gratis nation. The decisions nosotros accept today, the foundations nosotros lay today, the projects nosotros undertake today, the social as well as economical investments nosotros brand today – whether for the immediate futurity or for the medium term – volition decide where nosotros stand. The footstep of alter as well as evolution inwards our province is rapid as well as appreciable. And every bit per our civilisational traditions, it is driven past times our people, past times civil guild as well as past times a partnership betwixt citizen as well as government. Its focus, 1 time again inwards keeping alongside the essence of Indian thought, is on a improve life for the less fortunate.
I volition give yous exactly 1 example. The Gram Swaraj Abhiyan is taking 7 flagship programmes to the real doorstep of the poorest as well as the most deprived amid our swain citizens. These services include access to electricity, access to the formal banking system, access to welfare as well as insurance programmes, as well as access to immunisation inwards hitherto hard-to-reach areas. The Gram Swaraj Abhiyan has been extended to 117 Aspirational Districts where, 7 decades afterward Independence, nosotros yet take away hold stark gaps inwards the evolution narrative.
Not surprisingly in that location is a pregnant overlap betwixt the populations of these districts as well as historically weaker communities, such every bit Scheduled Castes as well as Scheduled Tribes. As such, nosotros take away hold an chance to lift the character of life for those of our swain citizens who take away hold unfortunately remained at the bottom of the pyramid. The Gram Swaraj Abhiyan is non beingness carried out past times authorities alone. It is a collaboration of world agencies as well as community groups, alongside selfless citizens who are keen to share, to understand as well as to give back.
Dear Fellow Citizens
Independence Day is e'er special, but this twelvemonth in that location is an odd significance attached to it. In a few weeks, on sec October, nosotros volition get down the commemoration of the 150th birthday of Mahatma Gandhi. Gandhiji did non exactly Pb our liberty struggle. He was as well as yet is our moral compass. In my capacity every bit the President of India, I take away hold been fortunate to take away hold travelled roughly the world, especially to a few countries of Africa. Everywhere, across continents, Gandhiji is mentioned, cherished as well as remembered every bit an picture for all humanity. He is the embodiment of India.
It is non e'er unproblematic to understand Gandhiji. He refused to endure restricted inwards his Definition of politics as well as political activism, or fifty-fifty of freedom. When Gandhiji as well as his married adult woman Kasturba, travelled to Champaran inwards Bihar for the indigo farmers’ agitation, they devoted a considerable business office of their fourth dimension to educating local people, especially women as well as children, every bit good every bit teaching them well-nigh hygiene as well as health. Here, as well as on other occasions, Gandhiji personally led the drive for swachhta or cleanliness. He linked the removal of dirt to an deed of self-discipline as well as of promoting physical as well as mental health.
Many were puzzled at that time. What does all this take away hold to produce alongside freedom? For Gandhiji, they were the centre-piece of the request for freedom. This was a struggle, according to him, non exactly for political mightiness but for empowering the poorest of the poor, educating the uneducated, ensuring the correct to a dignified life as well as a viable livelihood for every village, for every neighbourhood, for every solid unit of measurement – as well as for every individual.
Gandhiji spoke of swadeshi alongside an uncommon zeal. To him this was a pride inwards promoting Indian inventiveness as well as an Indian sensibility. Nevertheless, he was endure to intellectual currents from the residual of the world. He invited these to enrich our learning. To him, Indian civilization was defined past times opened upwards windows as well as non closed doors. This was his concept of swadeshi as well as it is yet relevant to us every bit nosotros engage alongside the basis – whether for our economy, our health, instruction as well as social aspirations, or our policy choices.
Perhaps Gandhiji’s most noble mantra was to signal out that the mightiness of ahinsa is far greater than the mightiness of hinsa. The mightiness to remain your manus is far greater than the mightiness to strike alongside your manus as well as hinsa has no identify inwards the society. The weapon of ahinsa was the most effective weapon Gandhiji gave us. Like his other teachings, it was rooted inwards the ancient wisdom of Republic of Republic of India as well as yet has a resonance inwards the 21st century as well as inwards our daily lives.
This Independence Day, so unopen to the 150th anniversary commemoration of Gandhiji, allow each of us suit his ideas as well as maxims, inwards whatever trend nosotros tin inwards our everyday operate as well as conduct. I tin mean value of no improve agency to celebrate our freedom. I tin mean value of no improve agency to celebrate Indianness.
And this Indianness is non for us alone. It is business office of what our province as well as our civilization convey to the global stage. In the spirit of Gandhiji as well as the spirit of India, nosotros believe inwards the age-old ideal of Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam or the “World is 1 Family”. This is why nosotros demonstrate our concern for entire humanity past times providing assistance to many African countries, taking initiatives on the number of climate change, contributing to UN Peacekeeping Operations inwards dissimilar parts of the world, helping neighbouring countries affected past times natural disasters, rescuing people from other countries along alongside our ain people, trapped inwards a conflict zone. In the spirit of Gandhiji as well as the spirit of India, nosotros part the do of yoga for wellness as well as well-being, as well as using engineering for development. We are Gandhiji’s children. We dream for all humanity, fifty-fifty when nosotros walk alone.
Dear Fellow Citizens
In my engagements alongside students as well as academy authorities all over India, I take away hold urged students to pass a few days – peradventure 4 or 5 days inwards a twelvemonth – inwards a village. Undertaken every bit business office of what may endure termed “University Social Responsibility”, this volition aid students understand our country. It volition allow them to bring out as well as participate inwards social welfare programmes as well as reckon how they are making an impact. It volition endure of produce goodness to the private pupil as well as to the village, every bit good every bit to the country. It volition likewise invoke the fervour of our liberty struggle, as well as the identification of every citizen alongside the national mission.
I am gratified past times the idealism as well as the passion of our immature people. There is a spirit to attain something for oneself, for one’s family, for wider guild as well as for our country. This is the most moral instruction nosotros tin want for. The outcome of instruction is non simply a grade or a diploma, but the commitment to aid improve the life of some other inwards a agency that is sustainable. This is empathy as well as fraternity inwards action. This is the Indian spirit. This is India, because Republic of Republic of India belongs to the people of Republic of Republic of India – non exactly to the Government.
Together nosotros tin aid every citizen inwards our country. Together nosotros tin conserve our forests as well as natural heritage, nosotros tin safeguard our monuments for futurity generations, nosotros tin renew our rural as well as urban habitats. Together, nosotros tin eliminate poverty, illiteracy as well as inequality. We tin as well as nosotros must produce this together. The authorities has a leading exercise but non the sole role. Let us exercise the government’s programmes as well as projects to farther our ain efforts. Let us brand that feel of ownership our motivation.
With those words, I 1 time once again want yous as well as your families all the best for Independence Day as well as best wishes for a vivid future.
Thank you
Jai Hind!
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