Politicians giving only 30 % developmental politics: Kalam

"Politics should be a mixture of political politics and developmental politics where the former should comprise 30 per cent and the latter 70 per cent. However, today, our politicians are giving us only 30 per cent developmental politics. The day we are able to make our politicians work for developmental politics, our nation will definitely get on the right track and move towards becoming becoming a super power," said former president Dr APJ Abdul Kalam.
He was in the city to address the 1st Parliament of Indian Student Council Leaders jointly organised by MIT School of Governance and Ministry of Higher and Technical Education, Government of Maharashtra.
As many as 7000 student leaders from across the country are attending this three day parliament. Apart from Kalam, some of the other people who interacted with the students was Shri Shri Ravishankar, noted ecologist, Vandana Shiva, and filmmaker Ashutosh Gowarikar. Founder chairman of Infosys, N R Narayana Murthy also interacted with the students through video conferencing.
Sri Sri Ravishankar spoke about India vs Bharat: The urban rural divide and its spiritual contribution. "We should learn to take in things from each and every culture across the globe. We should learn teamwork from Japan, precision from the Germans, etiquette and decency from the Britons, marketing skills from the USA and duplication from China. Where we as a country score is on humanity. We should try never to lose that," said he.
Ecologist Vandana Shiva also inspired all present by her fiery speech about the need for the youth to take up the challenge of preserving nature. She said, "We cannot call ourselves a superpower when more than 2 lakh of our fellow farmers are committing suicide. Those who are providing us with food are having to go hungry and give up their lives. We need to take justice to the rural India. The problem of depleting ozone layer is a 100 per cent rich people's pollution problem. Simple steps like using earthen pots can help solve this problem."
Narayana Murthy, who spoke on the topic opportunity for the youth in a globalised era, stressed the need for increasing employment opportunities for the rural poor. "China has moved about 170 million people from agriculture to low technology manufacturing in the last 15 years. Today, we need to make bureaucrats, academicians and government come together to set up huge factories to rope in the rural poor. It is extreamely important for the government to become welcoming to foreign direct investment," said Murthy via video conferencing.