TV Mohandas Pai made a strong pitch for people’s participation in the political process, a cause he has been actively promoting with initiatives like the Bangalore People’s Action Committee (BPAC), while receiving the ‘Pride of Karnataka’ award on Monday.
“Our country offers great opportunities to some but not equal opportunities to all. With a GDP of one crore crore rupees (Rs100000000000000), we have about Rs82,000 per capita family income. But this is in the hands of just a few. So for social justice and equitable growth, it is important that we the privilege to take part in social and political action,” Pai said.
Politics is not dirty, he added. “Unless we take part in the political process and work alongside our legislators, the governance mechanism would remain faulty and we wouldn’t be giving back enough,” he said.
He also stressed upon the need for thinking big when social upliftment targets are being fixed. The scale of poverty and development in India is huge, and that demands more action. For instance, despite 65 years after independence, 55% of the population doesn’t even have basic sanitation requirements like toilets, he said.
Rohini Nilekani, founder-chairperson of Arghyam foundation, which focuses on water and sanitation issues, another ‘Pride of Karnataka’ awardee, said that as a society, we tend to “disrespect water”. The rate at which we have been facing water shortage, we are heading for ‘water stress’—the stage where only 1000 cubic metres of water is available per person for a year, she said.
“Development cannot happen without water. We have to shift to a responsibility framework about water. Sustainability of water resources is vital. So think of water. Value water,” she said.
Other awardees
While Mohandas Pai bagged this award for his work with corporate sector, Rohini Nilekani won it for her contributions to societal development, Chandrashekhar Kambara for literature, Sharmila Nicollet for sports and Dr KS Gopinath in the field of medicine.
Retired Justice VS Malimath, who presented these awards, said that the biggest challenge before present-day India is a “crisis of character”.
He said: “The huge number of heinous crimes, like gang-rapes, these days show that the greatest challenge India has ever faced is this crisis of character.”
The second big challenge, according to him, is the low quality of education.
“There is no focus on merit in Indian universities. Quality of education is shockingly poor. That has to improve. Also, we the intellectuals and fortunate are responsible for the poor state of governance in the country. We should shed our lethargy and participate in the political process. Otherwise, the future of the country is bleak,” he added.
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