NEW DELHI: "The need of the hour is disciplined action by all citizens" because "we are not divine, we are fallible," President A.P.J. Abdul Kalam said on Wednesday.

In his customary address to the nation on the eve of Republic Day, Mr. Kalam suggested "the necessity for providing compulsory NCC training for a minimum period of 18 months to all our youth either during the senior secondary stage and or during graduation in all educational institutions, both government and private." This kind of compulsory training "will ensure disciplined politics, business, judiciary, bureaucracy, scientific pursuits and sports and games."

Discipline meant that "all of us have to practise the values of honesty, sincerity and tolerance in our day-to-day living. This will elevate our politics to statesmanship. We have to collectively inculcate a positive attitude of what we can do for our country so that we together will be able to benefit ourselves."

Mr. Kalam advised political leaders to reorient themselves towards "developmental politics." As soon as elections were over, "all parties must converge on development politics with a common mission."

He visualised "a situation in which the political parties perform in the environment of developmental politics in our country, competing with each other, in putting forth their focussed developmental vision through their manifesto."

He said good values were intrinsic to individual and collective enlightenment.

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