Vice President House, New Delhi | 24 January 2020
Respected Shri Venkaiah Naidu ji, the Vice President of India, Shri Harivansh ji, the Deputy Chairman of Rajya Sabha, distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen,
It is my very pleasant duty to welcome all of you to the inaugural ICCfG Sardar Patel Lecture on Governance to be delivered by the respected Vice President of India.
The quality of the country’s governance has always been a popular topic of discussion in India. The Union and state governments come and go, but this subject continues to arouse excitement among citizens. Over the last 3 decades particularly, the debate has been becoming more and more animated and sparkling.
Governance is discussed at two levels; in academic seminars, political debates and public policy workshops where erudite, and sometimes esoteric, views are expressed; and in drawing rooms, market corners, morning walk groups and cocktail parties where half baked, ill informed and dimwits contribute equally to the deliberations. Like the fable of the elephant and the blind men, there are varied perceptions, sometime sensible, sometime erratic and patchy.
So when the Core Group of the IC Centre for Governance decided to have an annual lecture on governance, we started looking around for a worthy speaker to do justice to the title of the Lecture, the Sardar Patel Lecture. We could not find a more eminent and credible public figure than respected Shri Venkaiah Naidu. I have been a great admirer of his for more than 20 years.
Shri Venkaiah Naidu holds a degree in law with specialization in international law and in his youth was a champion of anti corruption movement led by Jayprakash Narain in the seventies.
Both as a student leader and political figure, Shri Naidu has been a brilliant orator, who has vigorously championed the cause of the farmers and the development of backward areas. I have seen his riveting performance in the Parliament on several occasions. He has the knack of raising even a mundane subject to the level of profundity with great ease.
Shri Naidu has occupied various assignments during his long career with rare grace and efficacy. During Vajpayee government, I remember him as Minister of Rural Development; he aggressively pushed for reforms in rural development and was instrumental in introducing many schemes including the laudable 'Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana’.
We are grateful to him for acceding to our request for delivering the Lecture.
We are also happy to have Shri Harivansh ji with us today to preside over the event. To those in the media industry, Harivansh ji is an exemplar par excellence for rectitude and fearlessness. He has seen governance at the state and federal levels with a very sharp eye. After having worked with many mainstream newspapers, he took the editorship of a fledgling vernacular newspaper three decades back and took it to great heights. He gave a new tagline to Prabhat Khabar ‘not a newspaper, but a movement’ (Akhbar nahin, andolan). He shares a common attribute with the Vice President in that he is also an ardent follower of JP. I am singularly fortunate to have seen him very closely.
There is perhaps no need to elucidate on why we have chosen to name it as ‘Sardar Patel Lecture’ in the context of public governance. It is an almost universally shared view that the leader who envisioned the future of governance in independent India was none other than the veritable Sardar. If there was one leader who gave a shape to the country, it was the Sardar. If there was one leader who defined the integrity of the nation, it was Sardar.
Called as “The Iron Man of India”, Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel was a leader who set an example to live one’s life upholding integrity throughout. Undaunted by the sheer size of the challenge of integrating the princely states, Sardar Patel set about realizing the vision of a United India in body and spirit.
And today, there is an ongoing debate about nationalism. I believe that the problem with you and me is that most of us can read the writing on the wall; we just assume that it is addressed to someone else. It is high time we realize that each one of us is the addressee.
In this context, Sardar Patel said, "It is the prime responsibility of every citizen to feel that his country is free and to defend its freedom is his duty."
“Every Indian should now forget that he is a Rajput, a Sikh or a Jat. He must remember that he is an Indian and he has every right in this country but with certain duties”.
Sardar Patel laid down his ideas about governance while addressing the first batch of IAS officers in April 1947. He said, and I still feel as if he was speaking directly to me, “I would advise you to maintain utmost impartiality and incorruptibility of administration…. The days when officers could be masters are over and the officers must be guided by a real spirit of service, for in no other manner can they fit in the scheme of things”. For Sardar, in a domestic Government unity and co-operation were essential requisites.
On his passing away, the Manchester Guardian wrote, “Patel was not only the organizer of the fight for freedom, but also the architect of the new state when the fight was over. The same man is seldom successful as a rebel and a statesman. Sardar Patel was an exception”.
I stop with another quote from the Sardar, which should act as a talisman for every Indian, “Your goodness is impediment in your way, so let your eyes be red with anger, and try to fight the injustice with a firm hand”, he said.
And with these words, I once again welcome you to the First Sardar Patel Lecture on Governance.
I will now request Shri Harivansh ji to share his views on the subject with us.
Endnote
(There is an allegorical mural in the city hall of the Italian city of Siena, according to which the six virtues of good governance are peace, fortitude, prudence, magnanimity, temperance and justice. And the balance of justice is held by wisdom)