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PRESIDENT’S ADDRESS AT THE BABU JAGJIVAN RAM CENTENARY
LECTURE, VIGYAN BHAVAN, NEW DELHI
Following is the text of the address of the President, Dr. A.P.J. Abdul Kalam at
the Babu Jagjivan Ram Centenary Lecture, New Delhi:
Evolution of Leadership
“Shared vision is progress”
“I am delighted to deliver the Babu Jagjivan Ram Birth Centenary Lecture. My greetings
to the distinguished participants, organizers, scholars and social scientists. When I was
asked to deliver the Babu Jagjivan Ram centenary lecture, the first thought that has come
to my mind was what a great privilege and honour for me to deliver this lecture
commemorating the legacy of veteran freedom fighter, great organizer, brilliant orator,
committed social activist, distinguished parliamentarian, true democrat and able
administrator.
On the centenary occasion of Babu Jagjivan Ram, I was thinking what thoughts I can
share with you. Leaders at various times of Indian history and elsewhere appeared in the
scene whenever the nation was driven by a vision. For example, the vision of
Independence movement of the nation created the best of political leaders. Also, it is the
uniqueness of India, that simultaneously leaders in education, leaders in judiciary, leaders
in science, leaders in industry and leaders in agriculture also emerged.
Recalling Great Leaders of India
Nations are built over generations. Thinking of Babu Jagjivan Ram, I am reminded of the
poem
“Lives of great men all remind us
We can make our lives sublime
And departing, leave behind us
Foot prints on the sands of time”
Babu Jagjivan Ram’s life has rolled over history and has made our nation prosperous,
strong and free. Freedom is an expansive proposition. It is attained by sacrifices made by
young and old and preserved by sweat and toil of generations. Babu Jagjivan Ram
belongs to that generation of freedom fighters whose courage and convictions has lead to
an independent India. He was associated with the historical figures of our freedom
movement and together they created the vision of Independent India, a freedom that we
achieved after 90 years of struggle.
When he was just 17, in 1925, Pandit Madan Mohan Malviya, the founder of Banaras
Hindu University visited Arrah in Bihar. Young Jagjivan Ram, the best student in the
school read the welcome address. Impressed by his confidence and academic excellence,
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Pandit Madan Mohan Malviya, invited young Jagjivan to study in the Banaras Hindu
University where he completed his inter-science examination and joined Calcutta
University for his B.Sc. degree. While at Calcutta, he organized a Mazdoor rally at
Wellington Square which was attended by over 35,000 people. This brought Babu
Jagjivan Ram into limelight and leaders like Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose took notice of
him. This is the period he got acquainted with Chandra Sekhar Azad, Manmath Nath
Gupt and other leading revolutionaries and was greatly influenced by the ideology of
casteless and classless society.
Though Babu Jagjivan Ram had always been dreaming of becoming a scientist, as he
grew up, he could not ignore the socio-political situations enveloping the country and he
sacrificed his personal ambitions to answer the call of his Motherland. While Babu
Jagjivan Ram was 28, he was elected to the Bihar Legislative Assembly without a
contest.
Political visions: In the post-independent India, as an important member of the
Constituent Assembly, he ensured the importance of social justice as one of the ideals
enshrined in the constitution. Babu Jagjivan Ram had the unique privilege of serving
number of ministries in the Central Government such as Labour, Transport and
Communication, Railways, Food and Agriculture and Defence. As Labour Minister, he
laid the foundation for a new era of a labour welfare, industrial climate and productivity
in the form of Minimum Wages Act and Employees State Insurance (ESI) Act. As
Communication Minister, he nationalized the private airlines and spread the postal
facilities to rural villages. As Railway Minister, he gave a new thrust for modernization
of the railways. As an Agricultural Minister, he pulled the country out of the clutches of
severe drought and heralded the first Green Revolution. As a Defence Minister under the
dynamic leadership of Mrs Indira Gandhi, he oversaw the liberation of Bangladesh.
Whenever we think of Bangladesh, I am also reminded of the military leadership
provided by Field Marshal S.H.F.J. Manekshaw who successfully executed the national
mission. While looking at the leadership qualities of Babu Jagjivan Ram, I ask myself
about the evolution of leadership.
Courage of conviction gives us strength and dignity
I would like to recall my traveling on 16th September 2004 in a train powered by steam
engine in a first class compartment of 1900’s vintage organized by Durban state of South
Africa. When the train was moving from one station to another, Mahatma Gandhi’s
struggle against apartheid system in South Africa was going through my mind. The train
halted at Pietermartizburg, the station where the monster of apartheid bit Gandhiji on a
cold winter night. He was evicted out of a first class compartment because of the colour
of his skin. When I alighted at the Pietermartizburg railway station, I saw a plaque in the
railway station, which reads like this:
In the vicinity of this plaque
M.K. GANDHI was evicted
from a first class
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Compartment on the night of
7 June 1893.
This incident changed the course of his life and the destiny of India. He took up the fight
against racial oppression. His active non-violence started from that date. This was the
rebirth of Ahimsa Dharma after the Kalinga War in 300 B.C. Gandhiji later developed the
Ahimsa Dharma and gave India a powerful tool to win independence.
During the freedom movement, under Mahatma Gandhi’s leadership the resistance to the
British rule in India started gaining momentum. At one critical moment, the major issue
was whether or not India should support the British in their war against Germany and
Japan. Babu Jagjivan Ram was one among the principal leaders who delivered a public
speech against the participation of India in the war between the European nations. For
this, he was imprisoned by the British in 1940.
Forgiveness gives greatness
When I was standing at the Pietermartizburg railway station my thoughts were hovering
on two scenes which I experienced in South Africa. One scene was, in Robben Island
where Dr. Nelson Mandela had been imprisoned for 26 years, in a very small cell, and the
other
scene
was
at
the
house
of
Dr.
Nelson
Mandela.
Cape Town is famous for its Table Mountain; it has got three peaks called Table Peak,
Devil Peak, and Fake Peak. Between the Peaks it was a beautiful sight throughout the
day, sometimes dark clouds and sometimes white clouds embracing the peaks. Table
Mountain is very close to the sea coast of the Atlantic Ocean. I flew by helicopter to
Robben Island from Cape Town in 10 minutes. When we reached the Island, except sea
roaring, the whole island was silent symbolizing the thought: this is the place the freedom
of individuals was chained. We were received at the Island by Mr. Ahmed Kathrada, a
South African, who was a co-prisoner with Dr. Nelson Mandela. What surprised me was
the tiny room where sleeping and all human needs have to be fulfilled. It has to be
remembered that Dr. Nelson Mandela, who was 6 feet tall was imprisoned in that room
for 26 years – fighting against the apartheid. The major part of his life was spent in this
silent Island. He used to be taken for quarrying in the nearby mountain for a few hours in
bright sun. This is the time his sight got damaged. In spite of his body being tortured he
revealed to the world his indomitable spirit. This is the time he evolved a manuscript of
freedom in tiny letters every day, when the jail wardens went to sleep. This small tiny
lettered manuscript finally became the famous book of Mandela “A long walk to
freedom”.
It was a great event for me to meet Dr. Mandela in his house in Johannesburg. What a
moving reception, the man at the age of 86 gave with all smiles. Dear friends, I would
like to share with you, when I entered Dr. Nelson Mandela’s house, I saw his three
dimensional form with cheerfulness: the mighty man who got the freedom for South
Africa from the tyranny of apartheid. When I was leaving from his house, he came to the
portico to give me a send off and while walking he discarded his walking stick and I
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became his support. While walking I asked him, “Dr. Mandela can you please tell me
about the pioneers of anti apartheid movement in South Africa?” He responded
spontaneously, “of course, one of the great pioneers of South Africa’s freedom movement
was M.K. Gandhi. India gave us M.K. Gandhi, we gave you back Mahatma Gandhi after
two decades. Mahatma Gandhi was an apostle of Non-Violence”. That is indeed the
tradition of India - to enrich whichever nation we go, our foremost responsibility is to
enrich that nation. Enriching the nation is not only in financial terms, but enriching with
knowledge, enriching with hard work above all enriching with honour and self dignity.
Nelson Mandela when he became the President of South Africa, he gave the people who
specialized in apartheid and ill-treated and put him in the jail for 26 years, freedom to
move, freedom to live in South Africa as equal citizens. Dear friends, a big lesson that we
learnt from this personality Dr. Nelson Mandela is beautifully captured in one of the
Thirukkurals written 2200 years before by Poet Saint Thiruvalluvar:
Which means, for those who do ill to you, the best punishment is to return good to them.
Great leaders share the qualities of sacrifice and forgiveness. It was these sterling
qualities that Babu Jagjivan Ram brought to bear during the freedom movement, and
thereby accelerated the dawn of independence in India. For example, under their policy
of divide and rule, British rulers needed his political support and offered him large sums
of money and ministerial birth. Babu Jagjivan Ram did not even consider it. Had he
accepted this offer, it would have led to a major chain reaction in other provinces and
would have been a major setback to the freedom movement. All national leaders and the
masses praised this act of patriotism and integrity.
Shared vision gives progress
At this point, let me share with you a historic meeting between Swami Vivekananda and
Jamsetji Nusserwanji Tata during a ship journey. It happened in 1893. A ship was sailing
from Japan to USA. There were hundreds of people in that ship including two significant
personalities, Swami Vivekananda and Jamsetji Tata. Swamiji asked Jamsetji for what
mission he was traveling. Jamsetji said that he wanted to bring steel industry to India.
Swami Vivekanda blessed him. He suggested steel technology had two components – one
is steel science and the other is manufacturing technology. What can you bring to this
country in material technology – you will have to build material science within the
country. Jamsetji was thinking and thinking and made a decision. Earlier when Jamsetji
went to London he asked for technology transfer for Steel Plant. UK steel manufacturers
looked at Jamsetji and said that if Indians make steel, Britishers will eat it. Jamsetji
crossed the Atlantic Ocean, talked to Americans and brought manufacturing technology
for steel. And the Tata Steel was established in Jamshedpur. He seeded and worked for
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the steel plant. Jamsetji is not there now, but TATA Steel is poised to roll out 10 million
tones of steel per annum.
The visionary Jamsetji gave one portion of his asset for starting a science institute today
known as Indian Institute of Science at Bangalore. The message I would like to convey to
this audience, dream gives vision, vision gives thoughts and thought leads to actions.
Jamsetji brought two establishments to this country – first one was steel plant and the
other was an educational research institution at the instance and the vision of Swami
Vivekananda. Babu Jagjivan Ram supported the foundation for such visions. He was
what you may call a strategist for building a nation from the bottom of the pyramid. His
concern was to strengthen the role of labour in the growth of new institutions in India.
The political role of labour was uppermost in his mind and he would say “I am myself a
firm believer in the efficiency of negotiations, conciliation, and adjudication.” In 1947,
Babuji led the Indian delegation to the International Labour Organization (ILO)
Conference. He was honoured as the first Asian Chairman at the ILO conference at
Geneva in 1950. By tackling issues on labour and employment front, Babu Jagjivan Ram
added to the industrial peace and productivity of the nation and its new enterprises
created by other visionaries like Jamsetji Tata. He thus, contributed greatly to the
productive potential of our country and as a consequence today our manufacturing sector
is growing well over 13% p.a.
It is not only his concerns to strengthen the foundation of Industrial institutions that was
bedrock of his contribution to the nation, but Babuji was responsible for policies that
expanded the aeronautical sector in India that resulted in the development of civil
aviation sector and genesis of Air India and Indian Airlines as nationalized air carriers.
Conclusion: Second Vision for the Nation
While I am with you friends, I would like to share with you a scene in Dar-es-Salaam
during my visit to Tanzania on 14-September-2004. I was inspired to see the children of
Uhuru Co-Primary School, Dar-es-Salaam, where the differently abled children are
studying along with the normal children. All the differently abled children of that school
rushed to me, embraced me and thanked me profoundly and showed what beautiful
assistive devices they received from India such as wheel chairs, hearing aids, braille cane
folding, caliper kit, prostheses, orthoses and computers. It was a pleasant surprise to me.
Only Meera Kumar, who was a member of my visiting team, knew about my visit to
Uhuru School. I realized that her heart was so compassionate, outgoing, helpful and
expanding beyond national boundaries, seeking out humanity as a whole. Her heart had
crossed the oceans to remove the pain of young children and showed them how India
cares for Africa. That night after this sublime event, I was thinking how could the whole
thought and feeling have come to Meeraji. Suddenly, I realized, that it was a genetic
imprint in her, of her great father, our visionary Babu Jagjivan Ram.
The seeding for the national independence movement took place around 1857 or even
before, I see the relationship between the urge for independence and the emergence of
great minds. As the independence movement grew, it brought out the best of leaders like
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Lala Lajpat Rai, Lokmanya Tilak, Mahatma Gandhi, Pt Jawaharlal Nehru, Sardar Patel,
Abul Kalam Azad, Bankim Chandra Chatterjee and Babu Jagjivan Ram. The National
movement had also brought simultaneously best of scientists and technologists.
The evolution of leadership took place due to the singular vision of the nation to realize
freedom from foreign rule. The ignited minds of the 540 million youth who are aspiring
to live in a peaceful economically developed, happy, prosperous and safe country are
looking for a common vision for the nation, so that they can channel their energy to the
national cause.
Having interacted with more than 1.5 million youth in India, I have experienced the
feeling that no other challenge can inspire our younger generation of India transforming
into an economically developed, strong, prosperous, happy and peaceful nation before the
year 2020.
As a part of the Birth Centenary Celebrations of Babu Jagjivan Ram, let us now resolve
to transform India into a developed nation before 2020 as our nation’s second vision after
independence. By this singular resolve, we will be paying the greatest homage to Babu
Jagjivan Ram who is an example of development politics and who saw in political power
an opportunity to transform people’s life and promote their welfare by bold and well
thought out plans.
May God bless you.”
****
YSR/DS/LV