Indian Embassy in Tehran celebrates Independence Day

TEHRAN, Aug. 16 (MNA) – India celebrated its 65th Independence Day with national fervor and enthusiasm on Wednesday, which marks the anniversary of the end of British rule on August 15, 1947. Indian community in Tehran also commemorated the Independence Day. India’s ambassador to Iran D.P. Srivastava hoisted the national flag at the Indian Embassy in Tehran to mark the blessed occasion. Addressing the members of the Indian community, the ambassador congratulated them on India's Independence Day and read out President Pranab Mukherjee's message on the Independence Day. Following are excerpts of President Mukherjee's address to the Indian nation. My fellow citizens: Propelled by freedom of faith, gender equality and economic justice for all, India will become a modern nation. Minor blemishes cannot cloak the fact that India is becoming such a modern nation: no faith is in danger in our country, and the continuing commitment to gender equality is one of the great narratives of our times. I would go to the extent of saying that the glass of modern India is more than half full. Our productive working class; our inspiring farmers, who have lifted a famine-wrecked land to food-surplus status, our imaginative industrialist entrepreneurs, whether in the private or public sector; our intellectuals, our academics and our political class have knit together a modern nation that has leapt, within mere decades, across many centuries in economic growth and progressive social legislation. In 1750, seven years before the fateful battle of Plassey, India had 24.5% of World Manufacturing Output while United Kingdom had only 1.9%. In other words, one in every four goods on the world market was manufactured in India. By 1900, India had been left with only 1.7% of World Manufacturing Output and Britain had risen to 18.5%. The western industrial revolution was in its incipient stages in the 18th century, but even in this regard India slipped from 7 to 1 in per capita industrialisation in that period, while Britain vaulted from 10 to 100. Between 1900 and 1947 India's economic growth was an annual average of 1%. From such depths we climbed, first, to 3% growth, and then took a quantum leap forward: today, despite two great international crises that rocked the world and some domestic dips, we have posted an average growth rate of more than 8% over the last seven years. If our economy has achieved critical mass, then it must become a launching pad for the next leap. We need a second freedom struggle; this time to ensure that India is free for ever from hunger, disease and poverty. Education is the seed; and economy is the fruit. Provide good education; disease, hunger and poverty will recede. My fellow citizens: We must learn to live in harmony with nature. Nature cannot be consistent; we must be able to conserve her bounty during the many seasons of plenty so that we are not bereft during the occasional bout of scarcity. 20) I am proud of our brave armed forces and our valiant police forces, who have done so much, at such great personal risk, to curb this menace of terrorism. My fellow citizens: 21) If there is one man in history whose name is synonymous with peace, then it is Gandhiji, the architect of our independence. My fellow citizens: Let us leave behind the way of hatred, violence and anger; Let us put aside our petty quarrels and factions. Let us work together for our nation with the devotion of a child towards a mother. Let us repose our faith in this invocation from Upanishads: May God Protect us. May God Nourish us. May we Work Together with Vigour and Energy. May our Studies be Brilliant. May there be no Hostility amongst us. May there be Peace Peace Peace. Peace must be our ideology, progress our horizon.