15 AUGUST SPEECH

Respected dignitaries on the dais and my dear friends, Let me at first wish all a Happy Independence Day 2013. I am extremely honored to stand before you on this special occasion, the day on which we celebrate Indias 67th Independence day. This day is to remember our great leaders for their endless resistance against the foreign powers to give us the freedom that we enjoy today. We should be really proud to be born in this country, a nation which gave birth to charismatic leaders like Mahatma Gandhi, Rabindranath Tagore, B R Ambedkar and Subhash Chandra Bose. Its our duty to pay homage to all those who have laid down their lives to make the country free from foreign dominance. It was really a struggle some period for our great leaders to unite and to build a base for the development of the country. We might be thankful to a number of leaders, Mahatma Gandhi for his charismatic leadership, Rabindra Nath Tagore for his patriotic songs, B R Ambedkar for a putting a foundation for our constitution. Added to this mesmeric leadership by Jawaharlal Nehru, Sardar Vallabai Patel helped a lot to unite our country under on flag. While we look behind all the way through the fruitful years of attaining independence, its very significant to know the roots of our achievements in different fields. Our country had made remarkable progress during the last 6 decades in almost all fields which makes us hold our head high. The esteem effort by millions of Indians during these years makes our country, one of the top developing countries in the world. Even though at present we are not to be called as a developed country, I am sure this credit is not too far for us to attain. Even in the midst of celebrating our Independence day with pride and honour, many things haunt us. Even to be proud of this vast culture and diversity, sometimes these diversities may be the cause of the imbalance of proper functioning of the country. Unhealthy disputes between states,

regional imbalance, and political instability are few internal challenges which have to be tackled on time. The financial and security of the nation which include terrorism and economic crisis makes us think to plan and reinforce monitoring mechanisms to face these challenges. One the global challenge the world face today is the inhuman acts of the terrorists. Our country also became the victim of several terrorist attacks. But the real intention of these crabby minds proved to be a failure as the people of India stood united to fight against these anti human activities. The determination of the people to stand hand in hand for the security of the country is a good example of how the citizens keep the we feeling in minds. While going through the early period of freedom struggle, it really creates a nostalgic feeling in our minds the commitment and unity shown by the great men. As those people were so ambitious, we too should have a strong heart and committed mind to fulfill the national goals of our country. At the stroke of the midnight hour, when the world sleeps, India will awake to life and freedom. A moment comes, which comes but rarely in history, when we step out from the old to the newIndia discovers herself again.

We are proud of our democracy. We are proud of our values and ideals Today, we remember all those martyrs who laid down their lives for the freedom and security of our country. The best way of paying homage to those brave sons of our country will be to resolve today that we will always stay committed to strengthening the unity and integrity of our nation. Let us all together take a vow that we will spare no effort to take India to greater heights.

Jai Hind