On this auspicious and historic day, as we celebrate our 61st Republic Day, I extend to you all my good wishes for prosperity and success, the growing resilience of this Pradesh, and happiness for all our people. Sixty One years ago India defined itself as a sovereign republic, secular and democratic, striving to be egalitarian, socially and economically, in the spirit of justice, liberty, equality and fraternity. The emergence of India as an independent nation and as a sovereign democratic Republic was a major event in the history of Asia and the world. Today India has been acknowledged as a great democracy - indeed the largest democracy in the world and the Indian Constitution as the embodiment of the political, social and economic rights of the people. Our founding fathers were determined to ensure political, economic and social justice for future generations of Indians. In the words of the Honourable Former President of India Shri K.R. Narayanan, “At the heart of our democracy is the right of the universal adult suffrage. It was an audacious and revolutionary act by the founding fathers, to have introduced in one go, the right of the vote to every adult citizen, a right for which the countries of the West had to struggle for almost a hundred years.” The founding fathers had the wisdom and foresight not to overemphasise the importance of stability and uniformity in the political system. As Dr Ambedkar explained in the Constituent Assembly, they preferred more responsibility to stability. That is why they consciously rejected the system of restricted franchise and indirect elections embodied in the 1935 Government of India Act. It required a profound faith in the wisdom of the common man and woman in India.  

So the question of hour is- are we living up to the dreams of our forefathers? Are we united as a nation, irrespective of region, language, caste and creed? Have we been able to provide true social and economic justice to the masses of our country? Is the nation marching forward in the spirit of humanism with scientific temperament?

The answer to this question lies in the successes and failures of our nation since 1950.

The last 61 years have indeed been years of progress for the nation, in several fields: social, economic, political, scientific and technological. Celebrating our achievements, we must never be complacent. The road ahead is a long one, and we remain determined to achieve eradication of poverty, illiteracy and poor health from this land.

We happen to be the largest democracy and we have retained the democratic character for over half a century; yet, we can ignore the role of money and muscle power in elections. The practice of untouchability has reduced tremendously; however the outdated concept of caste is been misused for political mobilization and violence in the name of caste persists. The entire nation cheers for one cricket team when we play against another nation but we have seen cases of violence against fellow citizens only because they happened to be immigrants from another region in our own country, as we saw in Maharashtra. We have had women as a Prime Minister of our country and have seen women as Chief Ministers of States, Judges, Bureaucrats, in the armed forces and even climbing Mount Everest but still cases of female foeticide, dowry and depriving girls of education are continuing.

The young scientists are ceaselessly working in bio-technology and other emerging fields of bio-medical engineering to unearth the mysteries of human creation and the characteristics  embedded in the DNA structure for providing better healthcare to humanity. Our space missions have demonstrated the high caliber scientific and technological inputs in transforming research to applications resulting in benefit to our country. Our defense scientists have proved themselves again by realizing powerful systems for strategic applications. Also we have force-multiplied our defence systems with electronic warfare capabilities, radars, under water sensors and weapons. Our nuclear scientists are currently constructing eight nuclear power reactors, the highest number of units that are being constructed anywhere in the world this year.

Our people have started seeing the benefits of Information and Communication Technologies. Reaching the target of nearly 10 billion dollars in exporting software development has increased the opportunity for our  youngsters. India has also responded  well to the wireless revolution and today we see the cell phone penetration on a  steady increase – a sign of good economic growth. The convergence of ICT,  nano technology and biological sciences is in the horizon. India is even better placed to exploit this revolution than any other nation. 

India, as the largest democratic country can really be proud of the conduct of free and fair elections in Jammu & Kashmir and rest of the country. We compliment the  exemplary performance of the Election Commission and the Central and State  Government machineries. The media, the political parties and independent groups have also contributed to this process in spite of the passions of competitive politics. The people of Jammu and Kashmir have to be particularly congratulated for the immense courage they showed in upholding the democratic traditions in spite of cross border terrorism. People of our country  have shown to the world that democratic traditions are deep rooted in our  civilization and that is our strength. In fact all of us on this day should pledge ourselves to build upon this unique heritage.

It was indeed a tribute to our democratic parliamentary system that it has done exceptionally well in the current session of the 13th Lok Sabha. During that session, both Houses of the Parliament passed 18 Bills. The Constitution (Eighty-sixth Amendment) Act, 2002 passed by the Parliament, which makes free and compulsory education for children between the age group of 6 to 14 years as a fundamental right is particularly praiseworthy. I trust this tradition will continue and all our Members of Parliament will continue to excel themselves for the cause of national development. I hope our Parliament will discuss and evolve action plans for our vision of transforming India into a ‘developed’ nation by 2020. 

We have had prominent public figures from the diverse religious communities that exists in this country; but still riots and terrorist attacks on communal lines have continued, as we have seen in the form of anti Christian riots in Orissa or the Indian Mujahidin blasts. The country is faced with internal threats from Naxalism and terrorism. Whatever their grievances, those who use guns and subscribe to an extreme ideology, have not chosen the correct path. In a democracy, there is no place for violent methods. Naxalites exploit sentiments of discontentment in the undeveloped parts of the country. The Government is committed to give special attention to the welfare of our tribals and marginal farmers as a part of its policy of seeking inclusive growth. At the same time growth of Naxalism should be handled firmly. The enactment of the National Investigation Agency Act, 2008 was a benchmark in this regard. For the progress of our nation it is imperative that we have an educated and enlightened populace. In order to achieve this objective, Centers of Excellence in the field of education such as the IIT’s, IIM’s and National Law University’s have been established. Here at GNLU we must all resolve to work with utmost honesty, sincerity and dedication for the cause of our nation and the still larger cause of humanity. As Jawaharlal Nehru said, it may be beyond us to shed everyone’s tear and put an end to everyone’s suffering and so long as there are tears and suffering our work will not be over.

We have taken some initiatives in this direction such as the establishment of research centers such as the Centre of Food Security, that will examine the legal framework in the field of food security in the broader social context. Our GNLU students have undertaken a project funded by UNCTAD to help fisherman in Coastal Gujarat.  Our Swarnim Gujarat Committee has been working on the issue of the pending backlog of cases and the sub committee on legal reforms is working in the direction of proposing further improvements in the legal system of the State. Yet another group of students is making a study of the trials of the 2002 Gujarat Riot Cases. In this era of Globalization we have attempted to equip ourselves with introduction of foreign law and foreign language courses.

I would like to once again convey my good wishes to my fellow citizens with a benediction for human welfare. Let each one of us commit ourselves to live up to our duties and responsibilities, conscious that we represent a great nation with a great destiny.

JAI HIND!

Bimal N. Patel

Director (Vice-Chancellor)