Avtar Bhat
KATRA, Mar 26: Mainta-ining that era of disruptive politics has come to an end in the country now, Union Minister of State in PMO with independent charge of North Eastern States, Dr Jitendra Singh today said that people of the country have rejected all such forces indulging in disruptive politics.
Addressing the North India Student Parliament (NISP) held at Shri Mata Vaishno Devi University (SMVDU) here, Dr Jitendra Singh said that recent elections held in five States have clearly proved that the youth of this country, who constituted 65 to 70 percent of India’s population are not going to trap into the dragnet of the forces exploiting them on the name of region, caste, creed, colour and religion as they have voted as per their conscience.
Without naming the opposition parties, Dr Jitendra Singh said during last two years Parliament was disrupted and bills stalled. “This was the wastage of both time and energy. But the people of the country are watching us and voter today does not allow the politics of disruption and they are not going to forgive us, because India 2017 is a young India. They are going to determine the composition of Parliament and also they are going to determine that who is going to rule,” Dr Singh added.
He said India has come out from the feudal sentiment and the voter showed that he is not going to be influenced or carried away by false and catchy slogans. Dr Singh said Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal and Myanmar which were once part of India could not progress as fast as India because they did not adopt the democratic system.
Maintaining that one feels disappointed seeing frequent disruptions in Parliament as the people have send us there for a different kind of work and not disruptions. He said “but India is a young democracy and we are still in infancy. If history will be written tomorrow the 70 years in democracy will not be even a footnote in a chapter of history., The Mother India is still in infancy and it is just crawling”, he added.
The Union Minister said that most remarkable feature of Indian democracy is that a common man is wiser than a Vice Chancellor of a University or a politician. This has become evident from the election results that were announced over a week before and that is a lesson also.
He said the era of grass root democracy has emerged in India with the taking over of Narendra Modi as Prime Minister and the period of feudalism in Indian politics are the things of past now.
The Union Minister while lauding the role of security forces said “our safety and security is because of them and we are indebted to them for the same”. Taking a dig at those intellectuals who call it a narrow patriotism, Dr Jitendra Singh said that if it is a narrow patriotism, still he salutes it.
Quoting great British author George Barnard Shah who had said that patriotism is a narrow thing which is confined to ones country only, the Union Minister said that playing National Anthem can be a symbolic but this symbolism is not for which we have to be apologetic.
Maintaining that India is a young democracy where such problems can persist, Dr Jitendra Singh said that even the older democracies of the world have drawn some bottom line. They closed the chapters which challenged the national unity but unfortunately in India if such a chapter is closed it is again opened in other form.
Stressing on evolving ones own thought process, Dr Jitendra Singh said that one should not get swayed by some body’s thoughts. Referring to intellectual terrorism he said the militancy and terrorism emanates from the thought which comes from a computer, he added.
Terming the democracy as the best form of Government, he said among all forms of Government democracy is a golden thought and ultimate litmus in a democracy is whether the benefits have reached to the last man in the last queue. Dr Jitendra Singh made it clear that unless the gap between haves and have-nots is not bridged such kind of problems will remain in India.
“To overcome these problems we have to set a common cord and it can only be determined through the mantra of growth. India is witnessing in the form of Prime Minister Narendra Modi a common cord and it is emergence of gross root democracy,” he added.
Speaking on the occasion, Dr Sanjay Jain Vice Chancellor of the University highlighted the need to understand and strengthen the democratic values among the younger generation which is more techno ethnic. He also emphasized the fact that SMVDU has already taken initiative in this regard by introducing a platform like NIPS.
Prof V K Bhat Registrar, Dr Yugal Khajuria,Dean of Students and Dr T R Raina guest of honour shared the dais.
The welcome address was presented by Dr V K Tripathi, president BCA and Chandan Maurya student coordinator presented the vote of thanks.
Dr T R Raina in his lecture highlighted the benefits of yoga, particularly for stress free life in youth. Prof S K Sharma former State Information Commis-sioner presented the history of Jammu and Kashmir and its Constitution while Dr Ashutosh Vashishtha spoke on the present economic scenario of the country and the challenges for the youth.
Two students Abinav Pandey and Shivika Thakur also spoke on the occasion.