Address (Excerpts) by Shri Jagdeep Dhankhar, Honourable Vice President at the convocation ceremony of Jawaharlal Nehru University in New Delhi on February 2, 2024.

I have no doubt that I am before the right audience at the right time. Discerning minds with enormous potential to hear my suggestions. I am not qualified to give any advice. In any case unsolicited advice is never respected. You haven't solicited.

I tried to find out how many of the PhDs have been given to the girls. I am sure the number must be balanced, but when a mention was made about representation of girls, the boys clapped more vigorously. So girls, take note: our gender is very accommodating and tolerant.

I must make you aware about the contemporaneous governance mechanism in the country at the moment. Not that you are not aware of it but sometimes the obvious has to be stated. I have seen governance for a long time because first I was elected to Lok Sabha and the only time I was elected, in 1989. I had the good grate fortune to be the member of the Council of Ministers and at that point of time we suffered the pain that our physical gold had to be airlifted to be placed in two banks in Switzerland to sustain a fiscal credibility because our foreign exchange were fluctuating between 1 billion to million now boys and girls it is over 600 billion dollars.

The governance ecosystem earlier was very difficult. Power corridors were infested with corrupt elements, liaison agents, and people who were extra-legally leveraged in decision-making. They controlled everything, which was against meritocracy. The good thing that has happened now is power corridors have been duly sanitised, and liaison agents are nowhere to be seen.

The big change you will feel is that you are walking into a system where you have every opportunity to fully exploit your talent and potential, realise your ambitions and dreams. It is so easy now; it was so difficult then.

Another good change that has come is there is proper transparency and accountability in governance that has been brought about in a systematic manner. It has been fueled by technology. That's another big change. What do youth of today need, they need the democratic values to be respected, they are nurtured, they blossom.

A fundamental premise of Democratic values is equality before the law. Democracy has no meaning if some are more equal than others. If some people carry an impression that they are beyond the reach of the law, no one can do nothing to them; they have some kind of humanity more than all of us whom they call ordinary.
Models are put to shame, but now they are gone. Everyone is accountable to the law. Everyone has to answer the call of law, and I am sure you know more than I do; this is the ground reality today. Even in the last 48 hours, you would have seen dramatic events, so corruption is no longer rewarded.

Governance is not sufficient alone it has to change also that is the economy. Just a decade ago our country was one of the fragile 5 as indicated by the Ambassador that we are already the 5th largest global economy on the planet. We have March ahead of Canada, UK and France. In another 3 years we will be marching ahead of Germany and Japan to be the third largest global economy. That is a big change that has taken place. We could never imagine that a country that was taken to be a border on the globe being fragile 5 is now an asset to the world.

Third, global institutions used to look down upon us. They used to see India as vulnerable from several aspects. No longer is that the situation. If we talk about the International Monetary Fund, they indicate to the entire world that India’s rise amongst large economies is the highest; we are number one, ahead of China. Also, if we go to other aspects, then the World Bank says India is the favourite destination for investment and opportunities. That is not something we had dreamed of


so right now the kind of development we are seeing in the country is at least much beyond my dreams, my Expectations. I never thought in my lifetime that I would see the kind of infrastructure that is all around and that is for all you to see. The point is you are walking into a mechanism taking a big leap in the larger World after getting your degrees where governance is exactly you want, wholesome governance affirmative government policy that allows you to exploit your potential and an economy that is globally respected, spinally strong. You all therefore have enough opportunities and challenges you can make most of it.
If we look around, the technological advancement that has taken place in the country is unthinkable; it is beyond belief. In 2022, our digital transactions were more than four times that of the USA, UK, Germany, and France taken together. Can you imagine that? Our digital transactions! And look at our platform, UPI - a platform that is being adopted globally, including by countries like Singapore.
If we look at the genius of our people, the kind of adaptation they are showing in technology is remarkable, unbelievable. We started a few years ago; hardly did we have mobile manufacturing here in the country. Now, we are the second-largest in the world, we export.

good governance, good economy and technology. What are the results? the results are the people have benefited enormously while covered and otherwise out of Technology. let me give an illustration to the category to which I belong, the farmers category. more than 110 million farmers every year thrice get direct into their bank accounts 6000 rupees. What is significant and important is not that they get an amount from the government, what is outstandingly important and a game changer that farmers are equipped to receive. That's a big change.

Boys and girls, all I am telling you is that this big change has taken place because there is vision, there is passion, there is a mission, and there is execution by those at the helm of affairs of governance in the country. These big changes are such that the world is stunned; we must take pride in them. If we go a step further, our Vikrant, indigenously made; our frigate, indigenously made; our Tejas aircraft, indigenously made; our helicopter, indigenously made. We have come a long way.

Our executive has performed beyond expectations. They laid a road map in Amrit kaal which is our Kartavya kaal which is our Gaurav kaal. firm foundations have been laid to take our Bharat to be the leading nation of the world, a developed nation in 2017 and you are the ambassadors of that,you are the foot soldiers. it will be taken on your shoulders. you bear the responsibility and you are lucky that you have an ecosystem that doesn't pull you down. It helps you accelerate. it puts you on a fast track. that is a  big change that has come

Boys and girls, always remember, take pride in Bhartiyata, take pride in being citizens of this great nation. Be proud of the achievements you are having at the moment.

I am sometimes very sad when I see knowledgeable minds, well-informed minds, having an indigestive mechanism for the growth of this country. They go outside the country or make assumptions inside the country that taint, tarnish, and demean our constitutional institutions. They go to the extent that India does not have a functional democracy.
Boys and girls, you are discerning minds. India is the only country in the world, 1/6th of humanity, which has a constitutionally structured democracy at the village level, at the Panchayat Samiti level, at Zila Parishad level, at the state level, and at the central level.

We had a celebratory mood in the country on 22nd January when there was a consecration ceremony of Ram Lala at Ayodhya Dham - a great occasion. But what is significant, and we should notice, is that the pain of 500 years was undone, and our aspiration fructified with the commitment to right this through established procedures of law. There was no deviation at all. That is where we are in India today. That is our Bharat.
And why not look back thousands of years ago? We had Nalanda, Takshila. We had governance styles.

Boys and girls, please read the Indian Constitution as it has been signed by the framers of the Constitution. There are 22 paintings, and they reflect the depth of our 5000 years of civilization - Gurukul, Indus Valley, Ram, Sita, and Laxman coming back to Ayodhya, Lord Krishna giving sage advice to Arjun in Kurukshetra. And down the line, if you look around, you will find not many countries have civilization depth in terms of years more than 500, 600 years. We have 5000 years.
Boys and girls, all that I need to indicate to you is that you are well-suited at the moment to think out of the box


We must engage in neutralizing Anti National narratives the greatest challenge as indicated was  that when an Informed Mind capitalises the ignorance of people We had a gentleman who was in driver seat of economy for 10 years he came from outside of course had our origin went back the kind of language he speaks the kind of predictions he makes and when he proved so massively wrong the economic cannot rise  more than 5% the rise  was at that point of time was 7.6% he has the audacity to speak out  
सुपर पावर बन कर क्या करोगे किसी देश को परेशान करोगे
He is ignorant mind a  perverted mind  who doesn't know our cyke who doesn't know our Sanskriti who doesn't know our Civilizational values this country has never historically engaged in expansion


You are the minds who have to neutralize these kinds of narratives, anti-national narratives. If you observe silence at this time, trust me, boys and girls, your silence will resonate in your ears for years to come. You will be thinking, 'Why did I not speak out?' We are a country where iconic status is accoladed on parameters that are baffling. We label someone as a great journalist, a great lawyer. Why do we not ask questions?
JNU is the right place, the epicenter, and nerve centre to engage in this scrutiny and probe.
If some outside university has become a hotbed of anti-India narratives, it's a shame to us. Those narratives are floated by people of Indian origin, be they students or faculty. You have to rise to the occasion, combat these forces, neutralize them, and engage in discussion. It is your obligation, first and last, to take this nation, Bharat @2047, as a world leader.