ADVANI CALLS UPON SCIENTISTS AND TECHNOLOGISTS TO MAKE INDIA A
GREAT POWER
The Home Minister, Shri L.K. Advani today called
upon the Indian scientists and technologists to make the country
a great power. He said, India looks to them to usher in an era
of peace, prosperity and happiness for all the citizens. It also
sees an enlarging role for them in strengthening national security
– both external and internal. Shri L.K. Advani was speaking at
the presentation of Shri Om Prakash Bhasin Awards for Science
& Technology ceremony in New Delhi.
Referring to the communal violence in Gujarat,
Shri L.K. Advani said, this has pushed the menace of cross-border
terrorism into the background. He said, he is also sometimes filled
with distress that we should have already consigned the December
13 terrorist attack on our Parliament to near-oblivion. But it
is not right for us to reduce our vigilance against the paramount
danger of cross border terrorism. If the conspiracy of this attack
was foiled, it is not because of any lack of will on the part
of the attackers, but because of the vigilance and valour of our
security forces guarding India’s Temple of Democracy.
The Home Minister said, in the past two decades
we have witnessed how the nature of threats to India’s internal
security is changing dramatically. Cross-border terrorism, aided,
abetted and indeed masterminded by anti-India forces in the ruling
establishment in our neighbouring country, has emerged as the
biggest threat not only to our national security but also to our
national unity and integrity. He said, our scientists and technologists
have a significant role to meet this threat. Shri Advani quoted
some lines from a little poem penned by one of India’s leading
scientist, APJ Abdul Kalam in his autobiography which reads as
follows:
Do not look at AGNI
As an entity directed upward
To deter the ominous
Or exhibit your might.
It is a fire
In the heart of an Indian
Do not even give it the form of a missile
As it clings to the burning pride of this
nation
And thus is bright.
He said the relevance of science and technology
to a country like India hardly needs emphasis. We have all the
natural and human resources need to change the complexion of India.
But what is needed is the commitment and devotion of our scientists
to achieve the result so that India can emerge as a great power.
He congratulated the scientists who won the Awards presented today.
