Prime Minister of India - Dr. Manmohan Singh

PM releases a compendium of selected works from "Seminar"

I am very privileged to have this opportunity of releasing this unique volume which is a collection of some sixty essays which appeared in various pages of Seminar. Seminar was the brainchild of two most gifted individuals, scholars, intellectuals of our times that Romesh and Raj were. And the task that they set for themselves, I think I can quote Rudranshu and then ask myself how faithful has Seminar been to that vision and therefore I can do only to quote from the opening statement in the first issue of Seminar in which Romesh and Raj Thapar wrote what kind of society do we want to build in India and what do we intend to do to hasten the process. Do our plans answer fully our needs and are they becoming, are they been carried out in the way they ought to be. Why is there such a difference between the promise and the performance of the ruling party? All these questions had been asked time and again during the last twelve years and this was written in 1959. But the answers have mostly been diffusive. The debate has been an excuse of polemics or rhetoric. This is the sole reason - de-eitre of a journal of discussion Seminar proposes to be. Debate all issues, political, economic, social and cultural which concern us in the spirit of free enquiry so that each of them can be seen in focus. I think that was the vision which inspired the birth of Seminar and its remarkable that as we look back these 50 years until 1987 Seminar was nursed with the loving care of Raj and Romesh and since then I think Mala and Tejbir have carried forward the heritage in a manner which inspires profound respect. In many ways, the issues that Raj and Romesh set out to deal with they have not lost their values in many ways these are issues which still dominate the social, economic and political debate in our country and its remarkable that Rudranshu has been able to pick 60 essays which have not lost their freshness even after 50 years. And that is a tribute to the vision of Raj and Romesh and we all have to be grateful to Mala and Tejbir for having carried out their obligation to the parents in a such a skilful, dedicated manner that one can say with clear conscience that Seminar has lived up to the vision of its founders. I think that is the best tribute that we can take and all I can say is to conclude with a prayer that 'May your path be blessed'.