Full video of Mumbai book launch event graced by Narendra Modi


Mumbai, 27 June, 2013

Keeping in tune with India’s march from ‘Swaraj’ to ‘Suraj’ (Self-Rule to Good Governance), Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi today said it is around time for giving a call for ‘Good Governance is Our Birthright’.

Speaking at a function to mark the release of a book ‘Beyond A Billion Ballots’ written in English by Rambhau Mhalgi Prabodhini Sanstha’s Director-General Vinay Sahasrabuddhe, he recalled that India had won freedom after sacrifices by so many people rising to the Lokmanya Tilak’s call for ‘Self-Rule is Our Birthright’. Time has come to instill the import of the slogan in the minds of people that good governance is indeed their birthright in free India.

He said there is nothing wrong in our democratic system, what is needed is proper utilization of the investments on institutions and human resources for the cause of the nation. In a free country, a democratic government means a servant of the people, not the ruler as it was during the British rule.

Mr. Modi described Mr. Sahasrabuddhe’s book as an attempt to differentiating between the role of an activist and academician to keep democracy aloft, based on the findings of the author’s Ph.D. thesis.

He said that 60 years’ democracy has come to a standstill in the country. Electing a government is not giving a contract to rule on a five-year contract. It is to fulfill the aspirations of the people. Democracy’s biggest advantage is that it allows the people to correct the mistakes. While the intervening night of June 25 and 26, 1975 was like Black Day for India’s democracy. He wondered as to why 125-crore people could not correct the past mistakes till now.

Mr. Modi said that people have lost faith in the system. Government doesn’t trust people. People don’t trust postal department, have to depend on private couriers. They don’t send their children to government schools, but to private ones. There is a difference between jobs private sector employees do and government employees’ service. There is need for every citizen to trust the government he elects. Planning Commission has been rendered redundant. National Advisory Council has become a bunch of sycophants. Central Bureau of Investigation has been incapacitated. There is need to for a political leadership which has vision and political will, free of bureaucratic tangles.

Mr. Modi cited several instances how the Gujarat Government turned series of crises into opportunities and winning national and international awards – be it massive rehabilitation after the earthquake, eradiating illiteracy among girl child with people’s participation, or coming forward with donations to the government to make success of pro-people policies of the state government. There is need for electoral reforms as a basis of good governance, shun hypocrisy like secularism and distortion of many ideals of Mahatma Gandhi like his dream of ‘Ram Rajya’. It was propagated by Chankya too, centuries ago.

He said that UPA Government at the Centre is embroiled in procedural audit, not performance audit. Centre’s stress is on outlay, not in outcome.

Prominent among those present on the occasion included BJP’s former president Nitin Gadkari, party’s deputy leader in Lok Sabha Gopinath Munde and leaders of Maharashtra.