Ladies & Gentlemen, first my congratulations, my congratulations to the awardees. The four awardees carry stamp of credibility for their authentic contributions. They are well known in the society and they are well known for the right reason. If I come to each one of you…कलम को नीरजा जी से बेहतर कौन handle कर सकता है. विपरीत परिस्थितियों में मौके आये हैं प्रभावित नहीं हुई हैं. She has kept close to objectivity as is humanely possible and therefore she is one amongst the very few in the category of journalists, the fourth pillar of the democracy that has ensured democracy in several Africans countries by being extremely vigilant andwhen I look at someone like Neerja ji, who has been bestowed with this great honour, that carries the name of one of the finest persons in the country,a person who encapsulates transparency, accountability, integrity, commitment to rural development, commitment to farmer, and was all throughout fearless in expression of his views.
Chaudhary Charan Singh is defined by sublimity, statesmanship, farsightedness, and growth that is inclusive and no wonder Chaudhary Charan Singh became the first Chief Minister of the largest state of the Republic of India, and then Prime Minister.
It pains the heart when people are short-sighted in assessing the great contributions of this man. His astounding qualities, his deep dedication, and his knowledge of rural India, are subject matter of people who have enlightened. People all over the globe have incisively reflected on his genius.
And I therefore find it befitting that a Rajya Sabha Fellowship will be given to the Kisan Trust for doing critical research on our former Prime Minister. A son of the soil who was always mindful beyond the village, also for the urban. He had a vision of India which was consistent with our civilisational ethos.
And therefore, this award to Neerja ji will go a long way in steering minds of the people to focus on issues that have shelf life longer than a day.
Sensationalism has become the order of the day and sensationalism is disorder. You have lived through journalism, but now a challenge emanates, disruptive technologies, narratives can take wings. People are yet to learn to content with them.
I am aware technology like machine learning can neutralise fast, but we have to work on that.
And therefore,I find this honour has been bestowed in a manner that makes all of us proud. I just complimented her on her book, ‘How Prime Ministers decide’. I had the good fortune to be Member Lok Sabha of the ninth Lok Sabha.I had the occasion to see twoPrime Ministers very closely. Shri V.P. Singh, I was member of his council of ministers and Shri Chandra Shekhar ji, I declined to be member of his council of ministers. I can say every word you have written is critical but objective, analytical but forthright, informative but also knowledge oriented and I am sure the nation looks ahead to your second book, which is necessary given the subject you have chosen. Dr. Rajendra Singh.In our country there are few people who get a tag, Bapu was a tag emanating from the people. So was tag given to the Iron Man Sardar Patel, Chacha Pandit Jawahar Lal Nehru. These tags are bestowed by history. They are organically evolved. In our times Dr. Rajendra singh is known as “the Waterman of India”.
Now when it comes to India, we are 1/6th of humanity, we are unique being the only vibrant functional democracy at all levels, constitutionally structured from the panchayat to Parliament but his work has impacted every inch of this country. In my own village there has been rejuvenation of ponds that have seized to exist except on records. There was a Supreme Court judgement long back “once a pond always a pond” but that did not fructify on ground. If the world has accoladed this man, if the world has appreciated him by way of awards, Magsaysay award is being one of them and many more. But it is the ground realization that makes all the difference and therefore by any standards how so ever expecting & demanding the award has gone to the right man at the right time. This needs to be in amission mode with passion because he generates it infectiously and I am sure this will impact also the menacing challenge we have by way of climate change.कृषकउत्थानपुरस्कारडॉफ़िरोज़हुसैन. Now agriculture is an area with respect to which I learnt a lot from the writings of Chaudhary Charan Singh ji. More so after becoming Vice-President of the country because when I was defined by the Prime Minister as कृषक पुत्र, my wife spoke to me, के उन्होंने आपको किसान नहीं कहा है, किसान का बेटा कहा है | इसका मतलब आप किसान नहीं है| किसान की आपको जानकारी नहीं है और कहा की मैं इस बात को सही मानती हूँ क्योंकि ये किसान के बारे में ज्यादा काम करती है |
I would appeal to you and also to our very distinguished person Pritam ji,
Agriculture is the spine of rural development. Unless agriculture develops, rural landscape cannot be changed and unless rural landscape changes, we cannot aspire to have a developed nation. Undoubtedly, at the moment, India is on the rise as never before. Undoubtedly, our economic upsurge is exponential, indisputably, our economy is blossoming.
We are the fifth largest globally at the moment, traversing difficult terrain and facing headwinds, national and global. We are on the way to becoming third now, ahead of Japan and Germany but to be a developed nation, which is no longer a dream, it is an objective for us, in 2047, our income has to go up eightfold.
That’s a daunting challenge and that challenge can find a solution or resolution only when village economy goes up and, village economy can go up and look up only when the farmer, family of the farmer, is involved with marketing of the produce, value addition to that produce, and generating clusters all around, so that they become self-sufficient when it comes to utilisation. Right now, the greatest market we have is with respect to agriculture produce, but farming communities are hardly involved with it.
And Secondly, industries run on agriculture produce by their value additions. Farming communities are not involved. Take for instance milk. At best a farmer sells it, doesn’t add value to it and add some value by getting it into curd or Chach.
We don’t think or reflect, why not ice cream? Why not other items? Look at all the daily consumables that are on our table. If something happens at the farmland, that will be remarkable. Now, the farming sector has to be viewed by any government in a manner that it is a priority sector. This is a sector that brings about economic development like a plateau. It generates employment close to your home.
Andtherefore, this has to be subject matter of people like Dr. Firoz, Pritam ji, we are required to do it you see. If we take milk and milk products, farmer is much away from paneer, why, ice cream why. When it comes to several other products, I am sure the industry must take care of it, the Honourable Minister is here.
Self-sufficiency of the village must be generated by the village, or a cluster of villages so it’s a great area. So the areas on which focus has been there, that concerns our well-being, our happiness factor, our social harmony, our stability and therefore such kind of awards are welcome.
These are not awards for the sake of awards. These are awards because these awards are given not to give iconic status to someone which in our country is problematic. Iconic status given to people on baffling parameters. The unique and wholesome soothing part of these awards is that these awards have been conferred on people whose credibility is the highest, the contributions are in public knowledge. I therefore congratulate all the awardees and each of them will be separately interviewed at his/her convenience by Sansad TV and this will happen in next four weeks. So that you will be able to share your thoughts with people at large, the Parliamentarians, the legislators, the agro-economists. I had the occasion to reflect and I am particularly referring to Dr. Firoz and Pritam ji,
Indian Council of Agriculture Research, It has about 180 outfits all over the country in every conceivable phase of agro-economy. There is a need to catalyse these institutions into real activity. The Honourable Minister Shivraj Singh Chauhan has taken it upon himself to put them in high gear. I have seen the change, the change is taking place.
I am going to one of the southern states on December 25 and 26 and I get a different feel, that impact of the Honourable Minister is being felt but then the people like you, if you visit them and have an audit of your own, a cautionary bell will ring for everyone, same about water. These areas that you have chosen are in fact are a great tribute to the thought process of Chaudhary Charan Singh ji.
These awards over a period of time must be structured for posterity to be self-sustaining and these become self-sustaining. One step you have taken, the composition of your trust. Second is it must be fiscally strengthened. Fiscal strength is fundamental for flexibility of functioning, otherwise we suffer constraints.
In my own way, I will be in touch with the trustees as to what I can do at my personal level but anyone who has at his heart welfare of rural India, welfare of the farmer, be it from the corporate, from the intelligentsia or from any other walk of life, must come forward to nurture a trust like this, because we will not have for a long time to come another Chaudhary Charan Singh.
It is keeping in view spirit of Chaudhary Saheb that I have in measured voice indicated my deep concern that expression and dialogue define democracy. How democratic a nation is defined by the state of expression of its individuals and organisations and how responsive a government is decided by the nature of dialogue it engages but for any democracy to succeed, expression and dialogue must go hand in hand with great responsibility either side.
I will not say much on this occasion but i leave a thought with you,
It is time for every thinking Indian to scratch his brains and to generate a deep sense of accountability with all those who are enjoined with obligations. Make no mistake, I am referring to Parliamentarians. In the last quarter of the century of our independence and adoption of the Indian constitution, if the kind of spectacle I had the occasion to see, should be a cause of concern. I find there is no concern around. People have learned to take disorder as order. There is no sense of revulsion.
मैं उम्मीद करता हूँ लोगों की कलम चलेगी, लोगों के विचार लेंगे, लोग मजबूर करेंगे की आप सोचिए आप क्यों गए थे वहां ?
I leave it with this thought.
