Indian community celebrates 59 Republic Day
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The Gyalpoi Zimpon, Penjore offers khada to the Indian ambassador Sudhir Vyas |
26 January, 2008 – The Gyalpoi Zimpon, Penjore, the Zhung Kalyon, Dasho Rinzin Gyeltshen, foreign secretary, Yeshey Dorji, and other senior Bhutanese government officials joined the Indian community at around 10 am at the Indian Ambessy ground today to celebrate India’s 59th republic day.
Just last year India celebrated its 60th independence day.Following the hoisting and unfurling of India’s national flag, the Indian ambassador to Bhutan, Mr Sudhir Vyas, read the Republic Day message of the President of India.
President Pratibha Devisingh Patil’s republic day address to the nation began on a positive note. She said that India’s economy was growing at unprecedented rates and that the country was confident about achieving the growth targets it had set.
“This century will belong to Asia and India will be one of the main driving forces,” the president said in her speech, adding that the impressive strides of the Indian economy resulted in the emergence of India as a powerful player in the global economy.
However, the benefits of the upsurge in the economy, President Pratibha said, had not reached all sections of Indian population and that the country could not look at the future without addressing the needs of the underprivileged and disadvantaged sections of the Indian society.
She said that although the government had several programmes designed to improve the lives of the Indian people, implementation remained a challenge. Since people’s participation was the key to effective implementation of projects and plans, it was necessary to improve the involvement of the local self-government bodies, as they were closer to implementation levels.
As a country bestowed with one of the largest arable land areas in the world, she shared her concerns on the slow growth in the agricultural sector. “70 percent of our population lives in the rural areas and today we need to give agriculture an impetus to make our rural areas, centres of agro-processing and other related industries,” the president said, adding that with better agricultural practices, land management and water management, agriculture would continue to play a pivotal role in the country.
She called upon the women and the youth of India to take up the challenge to eliminate the social evils like child marriage, female foeticide and infanticide and dowry which were still prevalent in many parts of the country and work towards changing social attitudes and mindsets.
“Women constitute about half the country’s population and laws for their empowerment and protection should be put in place,” said the president. “Most importantly, it is their effective implementation.”
Touching upon advance in science and technology, the president said that although India had a strong lead in the area, there was a need to invest in research and development as also to build up India’s educational institutions.
Corruption, the president stressed had to be eliminated because every rupee meant for development which went out of the system due to corruption was a rupee less for India’s development programmes. Bringing about greater transperancy, she said, was a good measure to remove corruption.
Naxalism and terrorism were two internal threats the country faced, said President Prathibha. The Indian government, she added, had to firmly handle the growth of naxalism.
“The continuing terrorist threat to the civilized world are reminders of the need to take collective action,” Ms Pratibha said. “India will continue to work with the international community to create a better world, free of terror, poverty, disease, ignorance and inequality.”
Emphasizing the importance of the day, the president said that the formation of the republic on January 26, 1950 was the first milestone in India’s march towards realizing the dreams of its people in the aftermath of independence.
India, consisting of people with different religion, languages and customs, today was the largest democracy in the world and one of the most stable, the president said. “We have held 14 general elections to parliament,” she said. “Today, there are 3.2 million representatives elected from villages, towns and cities of which 1.2 million are women,” she said. “This is by far the largest number of elected representatives ever in history, or anywhere in the contemporary world.”
Source: Kuensel