First of all, may I join you all in paying my tribute to that great crusader for communal harmony and secularism, the late Shri B.N. Pandey. We miss him at this Seminar and it was he who approached me first to inaugurate this Seminar. May I also wish Shri P.N. Haksar who was to preside over the conference, but is unable to join us today due to indisposition, good health and long life.
Some people interpret regeneration as going back to a golden age in our history.
I do not believe in golden ages of the past because every golden age had some gross material mixed with it. There always remained a dynamic core which could renew itself with fresh contacts and develop again, something different from the past and yet intimately connected with it. This to my mind is true regeneration of India. When we talk of regenerating India, the first priority should be uplifting the masses of our people from poverty and deprivation. We cannot talk of regeneration without addressing this basic task of uplifting the majority of our people from poverty and squalor.