Text of Vice-President’s address at the Fourth P. Parameswaran Memorial Lecture in Thiruvananthapuram (Excerpts)

It is an absolute privilege and an honour to deliver the 4th P. Parameswaran lecture organised by Bharatheeya Vicharakendram in Thiruvananthapuram.The memorial lecture in the honour, in the memory of one of the greatest sons of Bharat. He happens to be in the front league of idealogues and thinkers of Hindu thought process in this century. We are celebrating by way of this lecture one of the finest intellectuals committed to social work and such a son of the soil being honoured in the land of Kerala, North zone territory.

It is a testament that our civilisational values thrive, A civilisation is known only by one fundamental consideration, does it really honour its great sons and that has been the theme in last few years. Our forgotten heroes, unsung heroes, we have remembered them.

 Kerala has been the cradle of intellectual discourse, cultural enlightenment, and spiritual pursuits. This is a land that birth legends for Adi Shankharacharya who expounded the philosophy of Advaita Vedanta to Narayana Guru who led the modern message by his social reform and by his team of social reformers. We are celebrating the memory of one of them.

 This land is also home to some of the most revered temples, including Sabrimala, Padmanabhaswamy temple, and Guruvayur drawing millions of devotees, they get inspired and motivated. The faith and devotion that permeates these sacred spaces reminds us of the eternal values that hold our nation together.

 Our values are sublime, full of religiosity and spirituality, righteousness and self service. This fertile sacred geography also birthed Shri P. Parameswaran ji who received his values with birth. His unwavering commitment to Bharatiya values, his deep understanding of Indian ethos and his relentless pursuit of national unity continues to inspire generations.

 His vision for a self-reliant Bharat, culturally rooted and spiritually awakened, resonates profoundly across the nation. When we talk about the confluence of East and West, we remember Shri Vivekananda, Swami Vivekananda and his historic address at Chicago that was rendered at the World Council of Religions in 1893. But who rekindled it? Who ignited the flame in us? Who inspired us in modern times? By the essence of that address that stirred global minds, it was none other than Shri P. Parameswaran.

 In 1993, hundred years after that event, it was Parameswaran ji who invited the world to reflect on Swamiji. His life, his legacy and his message. The Government of India has rightly recognised this great son of the soil, a great ideologue of Hindu thought process.

 A messenger of Bharatiya Sanskriti, an epicentre in a sense who disseminated sublimity of our values with Padma Shri in early 2000 and in 2018 with the second highest civilian award of Padma Vibhushan, but these decorations do not completely define the man in whose memory we are having this lecture.

 The tribute which we can pay to such towering figures who amplify our values, epitomise our cultural essence, the best of human values, is to follow what he exemplified. We must emulate the value system that he professed.

 Ladies and gentlemen, I greatly commend the subject or theme of this lecture, “Demography, Development and Democracy, Shaping the Future of Bharat”-- Nothing could be more contemporaneously relevant than this theme, and this theme, when the theme is a tribute to Rashtriya Rishi who dedicated his journey to welfare of humanity through Rashtriya Swayam Sevak Sangh, an organisation spinally rooted in our cultural ethos and now in the centennial year, I appeal to everyone in two years we will be celebrating the birth centenary of this great son of the soil.

 I am sure steps will be taken by the organisers in concert with similar outfits so that his message goes around to the entire country and the world. If I have to put in summation the thought process of P. Parameswaran ji, we all are Bharatiya. भारतीयता हमारी पहचान है। राष्ट्रहित हमारा धर्म है, राष्ट्र कल्याण सर्वोपरि है। कोई भी हित व्यक्तिगत हो या राजनीतिक या सामाजिक, राष्ट्रहित से ऊपर नहीं है।

 And therefore, I commend the organisers for having so thought about it. The theme calls upon me to first reflect on the state of the nation. There was a time, and I had the occasion to see it, as a member of parliament in 1989, as a union minister in 1990-91, an atmosphere that did not

inspire us. That was alarmingly worrisome, full of concern, and now our Bharat is brimming with positivity and possibility.

 It is full of hope and aspirations. All around, all pervasive, an ecosystem of hope and possibility we can see, and in global firmament, it is the brightest spot of investment and opportunity. The country has seen in the last decade exponential economic upsurge. Our rise from 11th position a decade ago, on the scale of economic size, we have traversed a long distance, facing headwinds, difficult terrain, overcoming hurdles created earlier, cleansing the system, making it transparent and accountable.