Prime Minister of India - Dr. Manmohan Singh

PM's speech at the Indira Gandhi National Integration Award Function

"I am very happy to be here today to participate in this function to give away the 23rd Indira Gandhi Award for National integration. I congratulate the Kasturba Gandhi National Memorial Trust for winning this prestigious award.

Shrimati Indira Gandhi ji was one of our tallest leaders. Her contributions to nation building and national integration were immense. Each year on this day we gratefully remember her. It is only befitting that a national award for national integration has been instituted in Indira ji's name because those who further the cause of national integration are truly following the ideals of our beloved Indira ji. The award is a tribute to the memory of Indira ji. It is also a token of our appreciation and respect for the work of the awardee person or institution.

This year this event assumes special significance. The Indira Gandhi Award for National Integration is being awarded to a Trust which was established by Mahatma Gandhi himself in the name of Kasturba Gandhi. The life and work of both Mahatma Gandhi and Shrimati Indira Gandhi reflect the very best in our traditions of tolerance and respect for pluralism. Their contributions are of enduring significance not only for our country but for the humanity and the world as a whole. They laid down their lives for the unity of our country.

Mahatma Gandhi's fight for our independence was also a fight for the reconstruction of Indian society and for achieving true national integration. The unity of all Indians professing diverse faiths and speaking different languages was a fundamental tenet of the mass movement Mahatma Gandhi created. The principle of non-violence which the Mahatma preached and practiced was, in his own words, learnt from his illiterate wife Kasturba ji.

Kasturba was an ideal companion. She lacked exposure to education. Yet the strength of her character and conviction was a source of education for no lesser person than Mahatma Gandhi himself. It was Kasturba ji who refashioned many of Mahatma Gandhi assumptions and refined the way in which he understood the wider dimensions of non-violence.

Gandhiji sent Kasturba ji to make a study of women in Champaran while spearheading his first Satyagraha movement in India in 1917. It was from that study that Mahatma Gandhi could understand the severe poverty, deprivation and exclusion suffered by Indian women in the area.

It is in memory of such an outstanding woman that Mahatma Gandhi founded the Kasturba Gandhi Memorial Trust to serve the women of rural India. Established with the resources of common people in 1945, the trust has rendered valuable services to empower women and promote the welfare of children. It has provided educational and health care facilities to women in rural areas and created employment opportunities for them. The work of the trust now covers the entire country, with more than 500 centres in 22 States of the Union. It also reaches out to people affected by communal violence and natural calamities. It has become truely a movement for national integration and fully deserves the prestigious Indira Gandhi Award.

Our national integrity is of paramount concern. Unfortunately there are forces in the country today whose politics, ideology and worldview are narrow and divisive. This goes against our inclusive and pluralistic traditions bequeathed to us by the founding fathers of our republic. There is a great need today for all of us to come together to defeat such forces and help in the process nation building. Organizations like the Kasturba Gandhi Memorial Trust are shining examples of what we can achieve through commitment and hard work. They inspire us to make efforts for the uplift of the weak and the underprivileged and to work for the unity and integrity of our nation.

I once again congratulate and compliment the Trust for winning the Indira Gandhi Award for National Integration. I wish the Trust all success in its various endeavors in the service of our people. I also hope that in the future we will see more such organizations working tirelessly for communal harmony, social uplift and national integration."