Good Evening all of you.

Distinguished audience, I will be committing a great breach if I were to say that I rarely had the occasion to address an audience with such high intellect, my Parliamentarians may take offence at it, but then sometimes truth must prevail after all Gandhi Ji taught us the power of the truth is that you are confident and you don’t have to remember.

I firmly believe that democracy is primarily defined by expression and dialogue. Both are complimentary, this in our Vedic philosophy is Anant Vad. One of the fundamental is, and that is inalienable, non-negotiable-respect the others’ point of view.

My own experience shows often than not, the other’s point of view is the correct point of view. Friends, It is my honour and privilege to share my thoughts with such a distinguished audience in Bharat - home to one-sixth of humanity. The most vibrant, oldest, largest democracy on the planet with civilisational ethos of 5000 years. I am really humbled. Through a writing trail of over two decades, Shri Ram Madhav has got in the groove of being a philosopher and a thinker. On several issues, his columns in the Indian Express are a delight for the reader, thought provoking, stirring human genius towards seeking resolution of issues.

I strongly commend him for this impressive and daunting undertaking - The New World: 21st Century Global Order and India. The book ruminates upon the current and cratering liberal order and reflects upon the potential, new order. At first glance, it reminded me of Paul Kennedy’s ‘The Rise and Fall of Great Powers.’

Strategic Thought in India George Tanham, an American thinker, nearly three decades ago, in a treatise effectively suggested that there is absence of strategic thinking in India on account of its Hindu philosophical roots. With Shri Ram Madhav’s volume, George Tanham stands corrected. This volume is an accretion to a vast and perennial body of work, revealing convergence of Indian thinkers over world orders and India’s place in it.

A cosmic order and the place of Bharata Khanda (भरतखंड) or Bharat in it has been evidenced in Vedic scriptures. The ideals of Maha Upanishads states - अयं निजः परो वेति गणना लघुचेतसाम्। उदारचरितानां तु वसुधैव कुटुम्बकम्। This encapsulates our philosophy, our outlook to the world, which has been demonstrated on multiple occasions, and can be easily evidenced by recent developments.

Friends, this means “this is mine, that is his, say the small-minded. For the magnanimous, the entire world is one family.” We belong to the latter part, that is the message of Bharat to the entire world. It has been consistent message, a message from which this land will never deviate, and it envisages a flat and communitarian world order.

The principle राजधर्म (or ethical statecraft) and धर्मयुद्ध (just war) in Mahbharata; Dhamma धम्म diplomacy in Ashokan edicts; and Mandala (मंडल) Theory of Kautilya are all examples of theorizing strategic environments, all feast to intellect. These philosophies have ever been relevant but in our contemporaneous times, these are need of the global order.

There remained a historical continuity in Indian thought process. During the Second World War, thinkers in Bharat applied themselves to a post war order. KM Panikkar being amongst many undertaking this challenge.

KM Panikkar observed that the postwar order will have a much larger space for Asian nations as the colonial powers had curtailed any role for their colonies in the extant order. This is being realised increasingly, very prophetic analysis.

Colonization and repressive colonial powers ruthlessly engaged in human and resource exploitation only to their benefit. In Asia and Western Dominance, Panikkar laid out a vision of postwar order where Asia and the West will be equals. Panikkar also imagined India as a maritime as well as continental actor that would have a substantial role to play in the global maritime order. Wherever he may be, his soul will be very soothing to know what is happening at the moment, with respect to what he thought about.

His thought underscored Bharat’s principled stance to secure equitable order and global peace and harmony. This country has always stood for global peace and harmony, never having anytime engaged in history on expansionism. The contemporaneous global scenario today is alarmingly concerning and worrisome, particularly for peace loving nations, like Bharat.

Today as we stand at a critical juncture of history, Ram Madhav stands in that illustrious lineage of India thinkers who assiduously and vigorously embraced the intellectual challenge of thinking about the past, present, and the future. His description of ten challenges is particularly stimulating. Conceding that there are many more such challenges. An attack on civilizational ethos of countries like India would surely be one such. I must share with you, some challenges with nation are existential. I would not deliberate much on them but the time bomb is ticking.

Very prospects of changes, particularly orchestrated once, in the demographic and civilizational character of a country that has five thousand years of history is bound to evoke concerns that will have repercussions for both domestic and global orders. Our identity, its pristine value system has to be preserved, it is not optional. We stand for it. Friends, These existential challenges are like as I said, ticking time bomb, time is running out, waiting for diffusion and waiting for long. We are cliffhanging on several aspects, any delay may worsen the situation beyond getting retrieved.

Browsing through the pages of New World: 21st Century Global Order and India, I felt of the imprint of Vinayak Damodar Savarkar in the author’s thought. I have had the occasion to go to Andaman and Nicobar, spend sometime in cellular jail, in that room. It is not emanating from my mind but my soul. Savarkar, despite all the untenable misgivings, remains a celebrated thinker who stood at the wee hours of the postwar order.

Savarkar, a staunch realist, believed in a post-war world, where nations would act only in pursuit of their own interests, not based on idealism, morality, or international solidarity. Imagine how prophetic he has been. Look around last fortnight, last three months. All this has been seen by all of us. He rejected pacifist or utopian internationalism and emphasized that India must safeguard its sovereignty through strength, not by relying on Western-dominated institutions like the League of Nations or, later, the UN, both ignoring due place to one-sixth of humanity.

Peace comes from position of strength, sovereignty is best secured when we are ever ready for war. Friends, I could not agree more with lamentations of the author. He highlights a “perpetual decline of global multilateralism” and prescribes India to “give up romanticism” and “focus on economic growth.” While asserting this, I heard my good friend Parliamentarian Former Union Minister Manish Tewari. He also reflected with a variation. I am not entering into a caveat.

Friends, Today, strengthening Bharat is the governing philosophy and resolve of this government. It is steadfast, firm, non-negotiable and not withstanding the critics. It is spinally strong. The nation has never ever projected its stand so firmly, let us not be misguided by who said what?

The government and its people stand firmly for the nation, nation first and our nationalist, Just imagine from digital to physical infrastructure and from research to education, India seems to be single-mindedly dedicating itself to shoring its strength. The kind of strength Bharat needs has been carefully brought about by empowering the people to an extent. A scale which is mind boggling, more than 5 million people getting into banking inclusion. Look at the scale at which people got gas connections, look at the level at which digital penetration has taken place. I don’t want to go more and you know it.

This has created Bharat in last decade as the most developed nation in the world. Developing by speed taking note of the large global economies of the world making Bharat as the most aspirational nation of the world. These are times when we are easily misunderstood. The travesty of it is, that when you say these things hypocrite sycophancy overtakes the traction to denude you of your position by exactly pointing a figure which normally should be pointed towards them.

Friends, Even the Fabian socialists of the 50s cannot disagree with the direction of the country as we strive to attain. And what do we strive to attain? We are not creating Bharat, it was not born on 15th August, 1947. We only got rid of colonial power. सर्वे भवन्तु सुखिनः। सर्वे सन्तु निरामयाः that is our philosophy “May all beings be happy; may all beings be free from illness.”

Maintained the tag of the world’s fastest growing economy, during the last decade, Bharat now is the most aspirational nation with enviable youth demographic dividend. Our median youth age is 28, we are a decade younger than China and USA. Friends, As we achieve universal well-being for our citizens, we become role model for others. We lead by example, not proclamation.

We already lead in areas like Digital Public Infrastructure, where Global South nations can follow our path. It was the visionary leadership of Prime Minister Modi, that during G20 the concerns could be put on the radar. It happened for the first time during the G20 that African Union was put at par with European Union in the membership of G20. I would call it a game changing development. Therefore when we assess the prowess of Bharat, our outlook must be broad and not dictated by isolated incidents. Those who take stands for momentary situations are not in this crew of Bharat.

Once we attain the strength inwards, we can shape our strategic environment outwards. Friends, Since we are talking about global orders, the rise of Bharat is benign, beneficial to all, harming none — Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam.

Benign because this country does not have a history of conquests. We do not project our strength through external territorial aggression. The Prime Minister of the country Shri Narendra Modi sent a message to global community few years back, we are not living in an era of expansion. He conveyed to the entire world that this nation believes that all global disputes, conflagrations need to be addressed through dialogue and diplomacy. and the Prime Minister did it, recently when we had terrorist attack from across the border. He had targeted only terrorists, it was calibrated, precise to keep away civilian population. Bahawalpur and Muridke associated with Jaish-e-Mohammad and Lashkar-e-Taiba are proof of it. And how penetrating it was, coffins were taken to Kabristan accompanied by terrorists, Ministers, and people in uniform but when it comes to defending ourselves, there has been legitimacy of the use of force in our strategic thought as we have believed in Dharma-Yuddha or just wars. I said this, in the beginning. This is sanctified by our Vedic philosophy.

Friends, let me again focus on the recent episode, operation Sindoor. There was an attack not only on 26 souls but what was ravaged was the soul of Bharat. We are a land of Gandhi, such barbarity? Such act of terrorism, the attack was on the integrity, unity, and sanctity of Bharat and Bhartiya values.

Let me say, with deep conviction, what is inclusivity is in our civilisational vein. No one in the world can rise to a level to give us a lesson as to what is inclusivity, because Bharat for centuries has been home to inclusivity.

The second aspect is that our rise thus far has been beneficial for the global order. We have proven ourselves to be a force for good. When the world was turning inwards during the devastating pandemic, we became the pharmacy of the world by providing vaccines to over 100 countries. We have made our unique digital public infrastructure open source, and there have been many takers in the world.

I entered public life in 1989 as a member of Parliament and was lucky to be a Minister. I never imagined that India would be so accoladed by IMF, World Bank. Our digitisation model will be so appreciated that our achievements in six years are not easily fathomable in more than 4 decades. Therefore we again vindicate our philosophy.

When it comes to humanitarian efforts, we rush to rescue friends and foes alike. As our Prime Minister and Defense Minister have repeatedly asserted, we aim to become the ‘net security provider’ in the Indian Ocean Region. When there is distress, when there is need Bharat’s the first responder. We have demonstrated it. We also persuade others for dialogue and diplomacy when the world is on the path of war, we are witnessing these disturbing times. We are reminding everyone that this is not the time for war. For us, there is only one time — time of peace, prosperity, harmony, growth of all — Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam.

Bharat genuinely believes that there is no problem whose solution cannot be reached by traversing the path of diplomacy. Those who are here in the audience, with larger experience than I possess. Howsoever the severe war may be, ultimate resolution takes place from the table. Just reflect for a moment, who are the sufferers? how quickly are they forgotten? Their suffering is lifelong, and therefore this path is advocated, and that is why during G20 Bharat gave to the world this message by having motto of “One Earth, One Family, One Future.”

Friends, the pathway to Bharat’s rise would require careful treading. There are forces that are determined to make our lives difficult, there are forces within the country and outside. These sinister forces pernicious to our interests want to strike by dividing us on issues like language. Which country can take pride of language richness like Bharat. Look at our classical languages, their number. In Parliament 22 such languages allow anyone to express themselves in any of them. It would require many such thinkers to come together and debate and discuss challenges and opportunities and aide policymakers in making right strategic choices.

Evolution of policies must take place now a little more representative character. India’s think tanks they are available in various formats, different political parties, it is required that there be convergence. I wouldn’t suggest, Manish Ji knows the political temperature has to come down. There has to be greater dialogue amongst political parties. I firmly believe we have no enemies in the country, we have enemies outside and some who are enemies in the country are in small fraction. They are rooted to outside forces inimical to Bharat.

I am extremely delighted this volume is out and subsequent generations of scholars and thinkers who will deliberate on this topic will have to engage with this work of original thought. I commend the author for bringing out this volume.

Friends I conclude by saying, Bharat is no longer a nation with potential, Viksit Bharat is not our dream, It is our destination. The rise is unstoppable, the rise is incremental and we will witness the most peaceful resurgence of Bharat that will be historical and everyone in the country every single soul is committed to this because nation first is not optional. हम भारतीय हैं, भारतीयता हमारी पहचान है, राष्ट्रीयता हमारा धर्म है।

Thank you.

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JK/RC/SM

Century Press Release