How shall we realize this vision? What are the immediate steps that we need to take to realize this vision?
My interaction with many of you and my understanding of the various central and state programmes, the initiatives of private and non-governmental organizations as well as the overwhelming desire of citizens to participate in national development gives me the confidence that our society is ready to work for these missions. May I suggest that you all work together to evolve two major initiatives:
1) To formulate an Energy Independence Bill: A three-dimensional approach towards energy which helps maintain a clean environment.
2) Vision 2020: Adopt a resolution that India will be transformed into a safe, prosperous, happy and economically developed nation before the year 2020 using National Prosperity Index (NPI) as a measure.
You will agree with me on the importance of making these Bills a reality in a time-bound manner.
These are issues that I consider so important that I address them at some length later in the book as well.
I had a unique experience in Rashtrapati Bhavan. Whenever I asked for any data or information about a particular state or institution from a ministry or department of the government, the Planning Commission or the state government itself, accurate and latest information flowed from the concerned agency without the need for sending any reminder from the President’s Secretariat. This access to information was immensely useful to me for preparing my addresses to the nation, Parliament and assemblies of different states, public and private sector establishments and universities. It was an enormously useful facility that was not earlier used in the same way.
Another core competence we had built in Rashtrapati Bhavan was a virtual conference and virtual meeting facility which enabled us to have brainstorming sessions with experts from different organizations located in distant areas. During my tenure in Rashtrapati Bhavan, I had addressed twelve state assemblies and presented the missions for the prosperity of the states. The data collection, analysis, synthesis, expert inputs, brainstorming sessions leading to the preparation of missions for prosperity usually took over fifteen days to a month. Virtual conferences for this preparation were normally conducted from the Rashtrapati Bhavan multimedia facility from 8 p.m. to midnight, when the experts were generally available for consultation. The states which were covered are: Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Goa, Karnataka, Kerala, Andhra Pradesh, Mizoram, Meghalaya, Sikkim and Puducherry.
The criteria for selecting the missions for prosperity of the state started with the study of its socio-economic profile such as per capita income, literacy level, population below poverty line, unemployment level, infant mortality level rate, maternal mortality rate and the core competency of the state in the agriculture, industry and services sectors. For example, the missions identified for Bihar were 1) agriculture and value addition to farm produce; 2) education and entrepreneurship; 3) human resources; 4) Nalanda International University; 5) health care mission; 6) flood water management; 7) tourism; 8) infrastructure; 9) exclusive economic zone; and 10) e-governance. Ten missions were evolved to enable Bihar to increase the per capita income from Rs 6,300 (2005-06) to Rs 35,000 by 2010 and also to create an investment friendly climate leading to large-scale employment avenues for the 10 million unemployed/underemployed as on 31 December 2005. Bihar should aim at realizing the goal of 100 per cent literacy and employment by the year 2015. The government has taken up many schemes and I am happy to find that Bihar is the fastest growing state in the country today. Also, the number of people going out of the state to find work has considerably reduced which clearly brings out that large-scale value-added employment generation has taken place in Bihar.
There was good participation from the legislators. The presentations led to the initiation of many action-oriented programmes in the states. After the address to the assembly, I also addressed the vice chancellors of the universities of the state, and the chambers of commerce on the same theme.
In Kerala, Malayala Manorama translated the mission for Kerala’s prosperity into Malayalam, conducted district-level workshops and sought the opinion of experts on the methods by which the missions can be implemented with success and the recommendations were sent to the legislative assembly. In other states too there was good coverage by the media and I received a lot of feedback from state organizations.
Connecting its one billion people by a common thread of culture and values is my dream. Our great epics remind us of our glorious past and contain the hope for a beautiful future.
6
LEARNING FROM OTHERS
May I be a protector for those without one,
A guide for all travellers on the way;
May I be a bridge, a boat and a ship
For all who wish to cross (the water)
—Acharya Shantideva,
an 8th century Buddhist Master
I have always been fascinated by the way minds come together to accomplish progress. It is not an easy process, which is why difference of views is often cited as a reason for shortfall in achievement. In the process of rocket and missile development, which involved a lot of teamwork, I began to closely observe the thinking processes of people and learn from them. The collaborative process of formulating the India 2020 vision further intensified this habit. As president and after I have been fortunate to have the benefit of ideas, opinions and criticisms of people with experience and the not-so-experienced. All shades of opinion and queries add to the enrichment of knowledge leading to human progress. I intend to narrate a few incidents that personally influenced me as a sample of thousands of interactions.
On gifts
I have mentioned this episode often so I will give it briefly. My father, Janab Avul Pakir Jainulabdeen, taught me a great lesson when I was a young boy. It was just after India won Independence in 1947. Panchayat elections were held on Rameswaram Island and my father was elected president of the village council. He was elected not because he belonged to a particular religion or caste or because of his economic status. He was elected only on the basis of his nobility of mind and for being a good human being.
On the day my father was elected as president, a man came to our home. I was still a schoolboy and was reading aloud my lessons when I heard a knock at the door. In those days in Rameswaram, we never locked the doors. A man entered and asked me where my father was. I told him that father had gone for the evening namaz. He then said that he had brought something for my father and asked if he could leave it for him. I told him he could leave the item on the cot and I continued with my studies.
When my father returned, he saw a silver plate with gifts on the cot. He asked me who had given them and I told him that someone had come by and left them for him. He opened the gifts and found expensive clothes, a few silver cups, some fruits and some sweets. He was upset and angry at the sight of the gifts. I was the youngest child and my father really loved me and I also loved him a lot. That was the first time I saw him so angry and also the first time I received a good beating from him. I was frightened and started weeping. Later, my father explained his reaction and advised me never to receive any gift without his permission. He quoted a Hadith which says, ‘When the Almighty appoints a person to a position, He takes care of his provision. If a person takes anything beyond that, it is an illegal gain.’
Then he told me that accepting gifts is not a good habit. A gift is always accompanied by some purpose and therefore it is a dangerous thing. It is like touching a snake and getting its poison in return. This lesson stands out in my mind even now when I am in my eighties. The incident remains deeply embedded in my mind and has shaped my value system. Even now, when any person appears before me with a gift, my body and mind shudder.
Later in life, I studied the Manu Smriti, or the Laws of Manu – regarded as a foundational work of Hindu thought, which states that by accepting gifts, the divine light in a person gets extinguished. Manu warns every individual against accepting gifts fo
r the reason that it places the acceptor under an obligation to the giver and ultimately results in making a person commit immoral or illegal acts.
A nurtured value system
One day some months ago, my elder brother who was ninety-five years old then, called me on phone from Rameswaram. He started the conversation by narrating the visit of one of my Indian friends from the United States. During the discussion, my friend asked my brother, How old is your house? He said, the house was built by our father more than a century ago. My younger brother and my earning grandchildren have now come out with a proposal to build a new house in the same place after demolishing this one. My friend said he would not want to see such a historical place being demolished. He was willing to make an arrangement through a trust to transform the house into a museum and library, while alternative accommodation was worked out for my brother and his family. My brother was calling me to say he was against the friend’s proposal. ‘I would like to live in the house where I have grown and lived for ninety-five years. I would like to build a new house in the same place through the earning of my kith and kin. I would not like to have any other arrangements. You thank your friend in a nice way.’ It struck me, here is a man who would like to lead his life on his own terms and does not want any help, well-meant though it might be. It was a great learning for me and I saw in my brother a reflection of my father who lived to 103 years and inculcated such a tradition in us.
A Haj pilgrimage
It was a busy day. There were people to be met; decisions to be made; files to be reviewed. At that moment, my brother’s grandson called from Mecca. He was managing one of the greatest projects of my life. A three-member team from my family was embarked on a memorable spiritual journey. They represented three generations of my family. My elder brother, then ninety, my brother’s daughter and his grandson had departed from Chennai late in December 2005 to perform the Haj pilgrimage.
This project was very close to my heart as my brother was quite old. His faith was the main driving force for sending them on this pilgrimage. Our ambassador in Saudi Arabia came to know about their journey and called me at Rashtrapati Bhavan. He offered any help needed. I told him, I have one request, Ambassador, my brother desires to go for the Haj pilgrimage as a common citizen and without any official support. This is his personal wish. My brother insisted that he would like to go through the normal process of selection by the Haj Committee for this pilgrimage. His grandson personally submitted the application in the normal process and the committee selected them through the conventional random selection process by God’s grace.
The journey was spread over fifty days covering different places and duties as they followed the pilgrimage circuit.
With him were his daughter and grandson whom I had asked to accompany my brother to support him during the pilgrimage. But my brother showed great resilience and strength to face the discomfort and uncertainties. He stayed calm allowing his grandson to take decisions and followed his instructions without any change. But unfortunately during the pilgrimage his grandson developed a high fever. My brother took charge of the situation as he has always done when the family has faced a problem. He took charge of visiting the mosque, coordinated the food requirements and summoned the doctor whenever necessary. His grandson told me that he stood by his bedside in the night praying at least for three hours, as he remembered it. Once his grandson recovered he again went into his usual mode of quiet prayer.
His grandson started explaining to me the incidents that had occurred in the last few days. After staying in tents in Mina, they proceeded to Arafat. Arafat is the place where about five million pilgrims gather. I could imagine my brother holding his hands together towards the sky and praying.
On one of the days the grandson was coming back from the upper floors of the Grand Mosque after offering prayers. The pilgrims had to walk down the stairs as the escalators had been halted to avoid accidents. But walking down the stairs was not easy with people moving close together. The grandson was forced against the wall by the jostling of the crowd. He could not breathe properly and was struggling. Suddenly he felt the pressure ease up and there was more space around him. Seeing him struggling a pilgrim from Africa with a well-built body had moved in front to protect him from the surging crowd. By the time they reached the ground floor, the pilgrim had moved away not even giving him the chance to thank him.
The second incident is even more heartening. After completing the prayers in Arafat, they were returning to Mina. All the five million pilgrims have to travel back on that 15 km stretch the same day. Their vehicle’s air conditioner broke down and there was the immense heat of the desert. My brother refused to take water or food and continued to pray along the way. The vehicle inched forward every half-hour and they had been travelling for about eight hours. The driver finally suggested they walk the remaining distance to their destination, about a half-hour away on foot. My brother decided to take up the suggestion. My grandson helped him into the wheelchair despite his reluctance and started to help him along. They reached a place where they had to cross a small fissure in the road. My brother had to get down from the wheelchair and cross the fissure. Two pilgrims who saw this signalled to my brother to remain seated. Even before his grandson could say anything, they just lifted my brother with the wheelchair and placed him across the fissure. This time also they didn’t wait for someone to thank them.
In a place called Muzdalifa, they had to spend the night in the open. It was a cold desert night and they slept on the ground with only a mat underneath them. As they wore only very light clothing, this offered little protection against the cold. Early in the morning there was a huge queue for the washrooms. All the people who would otherwise have fought for their turn back home were standing in patient silence. In one of the queues, a lady had been waiting for her turn for almost one hour. A young girl came up to the queue and asked the woman to allow her to go out of turn.
the others in the queue let the woman decide. She let the young girl go. As it happened, after some time an old woman came and she too asked to be allowed to go first. This time all the onlookers thought after waiting for so long she would not allow the old lady to precede her. But to their surprise she made way for the old lady instantly. One has to remember that they did not know each other’s language and relied on signs. But the episodes show how even small gestures transform our lives in big ways.
Given the opportunity, love towards our fellow human beings flows like an uninhibited river, washing away all differences, was what I gathered from the narration by my brother’s daughter Nazima and grandson Gulam K. Moinudeen.
Field Marshal Sam Manekshaw
There was a call at Rashtrapati Bhavan from the Field Marshal when I was visiting Coimbatore in 2006. When I was informed of it I said, I must visit the Army Hospital in Wellington and see him. Let me recount my first meeting with him.
During the 1990s, one day I was travelling on an Indian Airlines flight and found myself next to Field Marshal S.H.F.J. ‘Sam’ Manekshaw. I introduced myself as the scientific adviser to RM (Raksha Mantri, that is, defence minister). When I told him this, he asked me, ‘Is he a good guy?’ The next question he asked me was, ‘How old are you?’ I said I am sixty-nine. He said, ‘You are a bachcha (child)’! I never thought I would meet the field marshal as a supreme commander of the armed forces. As soon as I entered his room, he told everybody to go out. He asked me to sit close to him and took my hand and said, ‘What a president you are, when I am not in power, you are honouring a soldier.’ He was very happy to see me. Old as he was, and bedridden, his mind was still on maintaining the effectiveness of our armed forces. They had to be continuously strengthened, he said, because of adversaries and evolving defence technologies. He asked me an interesting question. ‘Kalam, can you tell me, in another decade will all the existing weapons become meaningless and will electronic and cyber warfare take over?’ This question from the field marshal was ringing in my mind and came up when I met a great
spiritual leader and we discussed ridding the world of nuclear weapons. When I asked the field marshal, ‘Can I do anything for you?’ he said, ‘I do not know, but one thing I want to tell you, the status of the field marshal of the country or the equivalent has to be unique for the nation.’ This remark stayed in my mind.
As soon as I came to Delhi, I had a meeting with the prime minister for some other purpose. I told him that we must do something more in recognition of the great service rendered by Field Marshal Manekshaw for the country. That day there was a dinner for visiting dignitaries where I met the army chief and the air force chief and emphasized the need for recognizing both Field Marshal Manekshaw and Marshal of the Air Arjan Singh. Then I immediately called my secretary, P.M. Nair, to prepare a note and send it to the prime minister for necessary action with retrospective effect. The government gladly accepted the proposal to refix his pay scale consistent with his contribution to the nation. I was very happy that the recognition took place during the lifetime of Field Marshal Sam Manekshaw.