Speech by External Affairs Minister Mr. Pranab Mukherjee
at the Ground Breaking ceremony of
Jawaharlal Nehru Bhavan (New Delhi; 0900 hrs; November 14, 2006)
Foreign Secretary,
Director General, CPWD
Distinguished guests,
Ladies & Gentlemen,
I am delighted to be associated with the ground-breaking ceremony of Jawaharlal
Nehru Bhavan. This building, I am sure, will become another great landmark in
these historic and beautiful surroundings. We were privileged to have Prime
Minister here in February this year to lay the foundation stone of this
building. Within the short period since then, the Ministry of External Affairs
has completed various mandatory requirements and I am glad that construction is
commencing today.
2. Today, the nation is also celebrating the birth anniversary of a great son of
India – Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru. Panditji was not only the architect of our
democratic, secular and pluralistic polity. He was also a true internationalist
and one of the greatest statesmen of his time. With his unbounded pride in
India’s great heritage, and abiding faith in its capacity to forge ahead towards
a bright future, Panditji became the very symbol of the hopes and aspirations of
free India. As India’s first External Affairs Minister, Pandiji crafted,
articulated and personally represented independent India’s foreign policy in a
particularly complicated international context marked by the end of the Second
World War and the onset of the Cold War. The institutional and policy
foundations laid by him then have come to underpin India’s rapid rise on the
global scene. All of India owes a great debt to him and it is, therefore,
entirely appropriate that this building, which will house our Foreign Office,
has been named after the person who exercised the greatest influence over the
formation of independent India’s foreign policy.
3. Panditji worked tirelessly for India’s progress.
However, his love for India and its people did not confine him within the
country. His colossal personality and the range of his vision went far beyond
the shores of India. Even as he addressed the Constituent Assembly on the night
of August 14, 1947, when momentous events were taking place within India, his
commitment to humanity at large came out clearly when he observed that his
dreams were not just for India, but also for the world. He said, “All the
nations and peoples are too closely knit together today for any one of them to
imagine that it can live apart”. Panditji went on to add, “Peace has been said
to be indivisible; so is freedom, so is prosperity now, and so also is disaster
in this One World that can no longer be split into isolated fragments”. No
better vision for the world has been conceived till today.
4. This project is being undertaken at a juncture when India is assuming a new
leadership role on the world stage. These are times of new opportunities as well
as new challenges for our diplomacy. Our diplomats are required to play an
increasingly active role not only to build and nurture fruitful external
linkages to sustain the rapid growth of our economy, but also to make certain
that India assumes its due place in the global order. The economic aspects of
our diplomacy are becoming ever more important. India’s growing economy
necessitates increasing access to markets, sources of energy and investment and
advanced technologies. In the domain of external publicity, we need to put an
end to such stereotypes about India as have continued to exist and project the
true image of a modern and technologically advanced nation. We need to harness
the limitless potential of large communities of Indians and Persons of Indian
Origin around the globe.
Above all, we remain committed to Panditji’s ideal of
a peaceful world in which all nations – big and small – can live in harmony and
work together for the progress and prosperity of their peoples. I have no doubt
that our diplomats are fully capable of seizing the emerging opportunities and
facing the new challenges thrown up by the ever-evolving international scenario.
However, we should not rest on our laurels. Change and adaptation in keeping
with the evolving situation should be a continuous process.
5. The year 2006 has been a busy year in terms of MEA’s construction projects. I
am told that in August this year, my colleague, Shri Anand Sharma, laid the
Foundation Stone of the Chanakyapuri Residential Complex for officers of the
Ministry. Construction has already commenced on that project and today we mark
the commencement of construction of Jawaharlal Nehru Bhavan.
6. I am particularly pleased that the planning of this building has been done
with great care to incorporate state-of-the-art features. I am sure that these
will be of tremendous help to the Ministry of External Affairs in its
functioning in the coming years. I hope that the CPWD, which is executing this
project, will prove its 150 years of engineering excellence by completing this
project in time and by ensuring that it is indeed a landmark building.
7. I know that this ceremony would have given great
joy to the man after whom it is named. Many of us are familiar with the keen
interest Panditji took in selecting not only the human talent for a nascent
foreign service but also the buildings that would help serve India’s cause
overseas. Indeed, we owe some of our most outstanding chanceries and residences
abroad to Panditji’s keen eye and taste in real estate. As my colleagues and I
in the Ministry of External Affairs celebrate this important milestone in the
life of the Ministry, we rededicate ourselves to the lofty ideals of Jawaharlal
Nehru and pledge to do our best in the service of the nation.
Thank you.