M.P. & PRESIDENT,
NATIONALIST CONGRESS PARTY

ON 30™ MAY7, 2003,
AT Talkatora Indoor Stadium
NEW DELHI


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Friends, colleagues, and compatriots...

I take great pleasure in extending a very hearty welcome to all of you who have chosen to be with us today at the National Convention of the Nationalist Congress Party. Thank you for traveling all the way from different parts of our great country to be here on this occasion.

Since, the Red Letter day of 10th June 1999.we have traversed a long path of growth and conviction to serve our beloved country with utmost humility and with an urge to do justice to the aspirations of our people in general and toiling masses in particular. The Nationalist Congress Party has taken up onerous task of fulfilling these promise.

The NCP, within a short span of time since its inception, has made its presence felt throughout the country. Our basic pledge of good governance coupled with total transparency and accountability has been well reflected where we are at the reins of government While we echoed the thinking of a large majority of the Indian people and questioned the authoritarian style of functioning of the Congress Party before our inception, we continue to question the mishandling of political situations by the present BJP led NDA Government, which is governing the country with strong shades of a divisive, sectarian and communal outlook.

To welcome Shri Vidya Charan Shukla, a distinguished political leader of our country, and thousands of his colleagues, is a great honour to all of us. Their joining the NCP has not merely strengthened our party in Chhattisgarh, but also in the whole of the country.


Friends, I welcome you all here today to share our concerns about recent national and international developments, which have already affected the lives of our people and will continue to affect us adversely in the days and times to come. So let me start with saying that we should not become complacent; instead, we must go into the nuts and bolts of the scenario, analyse everything and understand how it is going to shape our future. Today, even after 56 years of independence, the history of India could be described as a colossal saga of missed opportunities. With a vibrant democracy, a large reservoir of skilled manpower, and a self-confident middle class, with a huge growing domestic market, we continue to languish on the world economic scene.

Our country suffers from a seemingly chronic malaise, which has left a great chasm between our inherent potential and its actual performance on selves with other developing Asian Countries, we find that India remains a large country with a poverty- afflicted economy, with large disparities in income distribution and sharing of wealth. Accounting for 16% of the planets population, our share in the global GNP is a mere 1.5 percent, and India's contribution to world trade is a miniscule 0.7 percent.

China and 'Asian Tigers' like South Korea, Malaysia, and Singapore have overtaken India during the last 25 years, which is indeed a very sad commentary. The future of a nation is determined by the economic status it enjoys in the conglomerate of nations. China has shown a steady growth rate of 10 percent, whereas, we with one of the world's largest scientific human resources, technological competence and industrial acumen, have been finding it difficult to maintain an overall growth rate of a measly 5-6 percent each year.

All said and done, there is still hope. I see a very large measure of it. It is heartening that political parties spanning the entire gamut of ideological spectrum in India have generally accepted the imperatives of higher growth with grace and pragmatism. There is no hesitation in accepting the fact that finally India is today poised to come out of the cocoon of its sluggish growth rate and become a newly awakening economic power.

This is not just our view; the world today is looking eagerly at us with high expectations. I quote the former president of USA Mr. Bill Clinton as an example of worldview about India:

" For a variety of reasons, India is the battle ground for every single conflict the world has to win, if we are going to have a 21st century of peace, prosperity and progress. If India continues to grow economically and gets beyond some of its own difficult issues, there is no question that you will be a giant among all nations in the 21st century."

With such expectations and predictions coupled with our inherent potentialities, if India lags behind, I say, it is primarily due to nothing else but incompetent governance, divisive forces and sectarian attitudes. There are constraints, no doubt, which go far beyond us. Factors external to us make it difficult for us to achieve and maintain high economic growth in a situation like war, conflict and the domination of superpowers.