“Lack of national character among the countrymen is the root-cause of most of the problems the country is facing today. People in the country, where the unity of mind, voice and act was evident everywhere, take the help of lies and conspiracies everyday for individual gains. The national interest should be the top-most, but we have forgotten it. We give priority to individual interest and ignore the nation. This was the reason behind the years-long slavery. After independence also the new generation was not imparted the desired education. The proper development of the country is not possible until the national interest becomes individual interest,? said RSS Sarsanghachalak Shri K.S. Sudarshan. He was speaking at a symposium?The importance of national and individual characters in development of the country?held in Patna recently. The function was organised by Shri Guruji Birth Centenary Celebration Committee.
Talking about the centuries-old Indian culture, he said there had been people in the country who always gave priority to the social and national interests instead of individual interest. But now we have forgotten them. ?We remembered artha and kaam and forgot dharma and moksha. Even after independence we did not get right education and whenever any effort was made to bring about a change in it, a hue and cry is made all over the country. The glorious past always inspires the new generation. Pride of the past, pain of today and bright dreams for future are the key to national development,? he said.
Commenting on today'spolitics, Shri Sudarshan said self-praise and others? criticism have always been termed wrong in our country. But in today'spolitics there is nothing but self-praise and others? criticism. ?Today'spoliticians should emulate Pandit Deendayal Upadhyaya in this regard. For proper functioning of democracy the change in this tendency is a must, otherwise the interest of a government becomes the interest of a particular party,? he said.
Acharya Kishore Kunal, former IPS officer and administrator of Bihar Religious Trust Board, said any person can become great with practice, but until his talent or expertise is not used for the nation, it is useless. Shri Rajendra Prasad, former judge of Patna High Court, presided over the function.
Speaking at another workshop on ?The role of castes and communities in social harmony?, Shri Sudarshan said the caste-based economic development connects the society, while the caste-based political development breaks the society. He said the western model of development broke our society and also developed a gap between the castes. ?Today there are talks about reservation in jobs. But in the caste system an entire profession was reserved for a caste. The work for every caste was predetermined and there was full coordination between them. In today'scontext, all the castes will have to understand the dependence of one another. The evils like untouchability, which developed in the meantime, have to be eradicated and only then the all-round development of the country is possible,? he added.
Dr Prakash Charan, a noted archaeologist and working president of Shri Guruji Birth Centenary Celebration Committee in Bihar presided over the symposium, which was divided into two sessions. (VSK Patna)
