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Advani for enhanced participation of senior citizens in public affairs

Staff Reporter

‘The gap between our potential and performance very wide’

Photo: Shanker Chakravarty

Honoured: BJP leader L. K. Advani with Hemraj Kathuria (left) and Prem Singh -- both 101-year-old -- at a function organised by Delhi Senior Citizen Federation in New Delhi on Sunday.

NEW DELHI: Senior Bharatiya Janata Party leader L.K. Advani on Sunday said the transformation of self-governance into good governance remained the greatest challenge before the country even after six decades of Independence.

Speaking at a Convention of Senior Citizens here, Mr. Advani said: “I am not one of those who think that our country has achieved nothing or very little during the past six decades. We indeed achieved a lot, and I am proud of those achievements. The point, however, is that the gap between our potential and our performance has remained very wide.”

Recounting a recent presentation on “India at 75” by Professor C.K. Prahlad, a renowned management guru who teaches in a U.S. university, Mr. Advani said: “He said India at 75 should aim to have the world’s largest pool of trained and well educated manpower; to become the world’s leader in industry and commerce with at least 30 top Indian companies figuring in the Fortune 100 list; to account for 10 per cent of the world trade, up from the present 1.6 per cent; and to become a source of innovations in technology, management and new organisation building.”

Most importantly, Prof. Prahlad said, India should focus on becoming a source of innovations for the world in health, education, energy, transportation and sustainable development for all; art, literature and science; and a new moral voice for the people around the world, said the former Deputy Prime Minister, adding that Prof. Prahlad rightly said that it could be achieved through good governance and honest leadership.

To become a moral voice for the world, all of us must first of all endeavour to bring morality and ethics into our own national affairs, he said.

About the current political turmoil in the country, Mr. Advani said Manmohan Singh’s Government had plunged into a deep crisis, which was of its own making.

Stating that there should be enhanced participation of senior citizens in public affairs, Mr. Advani said the precious tradition of seeking guidance from the elders should be preserved.

He also advocated preservation and strengthening of the institution of family. The need for family life was even greater for senior citizens, he said.

The function was organised by former Union Minister Vijay Goel to felicitate senior citizens.

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