Shri Advani, Shri Yediyurappa, Shri Ananta Kumar, Shri Vishweshwar Bhatt and guests, it is a great pleasure and a privilege to  release the book – Nanna Desha Nanna Jeevana, the Kannada translation of the autobiography of Shri Advani. I was very pleasantly surprised when I, an ordinary, apolitical citizen, received the request to release the autobiography of the leader of the opposition in Lokasabha and a distinguished former Deputy Prime Minister of the country. Sir, I am extremely grateful to you for this honor.    

There is a very important reason why I am happy to be part of this function. I believe, as our former Prime Minister, Shri. Vajpayee, does, that people in public life who have shaped public policy and altered the destiny of this country have a responsibility to write the story of their public and personal lives. This is a tradition that this country has not developed well. The rare examples of the autobiographies of Mahatma Gandhi, Jawaharlal Nehru and Narasimha Rao come to my mind easily. The western nations have a rich culture of memoires of influential people like Churchill, Russell, Goethe, Helen Keller, Thomas Jefferson and Benjamin Franklin. It is extremely important that influential, erudite, modern, globally-connected and well-read politicians enhance this tradition. Such works provide an insight into the personality of the leaders, the interplay between their private and public lives, their perspective on events that shaped the destiny of the nation, and their rationale for their beliefs, convictions and decisions. Through their honest, autobiographical works where they discuss their philosophies, strengths, weaknesses, and personality warts, these leaders come across as normal, down-to-earth, human beings and raise the confidence of youngsters that they too can become like them.  I am glad that Shri. Advani has fulfilled his obligation to the nation and to posterity. Such a tome is valuable not just for us, the citizens of this country, but also for the present and future rulers of all ideologies at every level of governance in the country.  After all, the country is best served when there is an environment of pluralism, discussion and debate that leads to honest and open expression of views on issues of national importance and when ideological frameworks are discussed transparently and confidently. Again, as Shri Vajpayee has said in the foreword to Shri Advani’s book, India’s progress and her ability to successfully confront the challenges of the present and the future depend crucially on the degree to which we are able to construct a unity that transcends the diversity and indeed transforms it to into a source of vitality. It is in this task that Shri Advani succeeds eminently.

This is one book about which you cannot say that the covers are too far apart, as Ambrose Bierce once said. Shri Advani whom we all know as an extraordinary orator comes across as an equally good writer.  Thanks to this book, I have learnt a lot about him, his life’s journey, his sacrifices, his commitment, his patriotism and his dedication. It is full of interesting facts about Shri Advani’s life, his journey alongside the journey of his party and the journey of the country. There are interesting snippets in the book from his personal life. Who would have imagined that Shri Advani was prone to being a naughty child and pull pranks on his grandmother? Through this book, we come to know that this imposing personality has a few common traits with the rest of us. He is an admirer of good Hindi movies and enjoys the movies of Aamir Khan, Amitabh Bachchan and Shah Rukh Khan. He is a lover of cricket, the staple diet of entertainment of this nation. Like Austin Phelps, Shri Advani is a voracious reader of books and he too believes in the adage – Wear the old coat and buy the new book.  I was a little disappointed when I read that he is not like the rest of us who exulted in unexpected holidays during our school days!


The book shows clearly that he is not an average Indian like the rest of us when it comes to intellectual pursuits. After all, how many of us have taken Latin or Sanskrit as our second language in our high school days? How many of us can say our greatest weakness and our most prized possessions are books? How many of us have read books by George Santayana, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Radhakrishnan, Samuel Huntington, Jules Verne, Charles Dickens and Alexander Dumas, and even more importantly understood and practised many ideas from these authors? How many of us can quote Bhagavad-Gita fluently? Surely, Shri. Advani is a rare one amongst our politicians.

There are many wonderful ideas in this book for every citizen who is concerned about the future of this country. The most important one is the kind of GDP growth we should strive for. His GDP has G for good governance at all levels - from national to local; D for development for all regions and all Indians; and P for protection for every citizen. I entirely agree with him and applaud him for this wonderful concept. I wish that politicians of every hue and color practise this kind of GDP growth. His discipline and commitment to his party and to the nation come across very naturally in every chapter. His spirit of sacrifice for his party and the nation is clear in many incidents in the book. The second lesson that is evident from his book is the importance of appreciating the good thing even in your opponent. I am reminded of the incident in the book where he talks about the courtesy of Shri. Rahul Gandhi whom he met while he was on his way to an election rally in Gujarat. Sir, I agree with you since I too have experienced the extraordinary courtesy of Shri. Rahul Gandhi. The third lesson from the book is the importance of being honest and frank in expressing one’s opinion. There are many incidents in the book that highlight this trait of Shri. Advani.

The incidents and ideas in the book show that he is a modern politician in every sense of the word. He is interested in leveraging higher education for making this country a better place. The book brings out clearly that he is as comfortable with academicians and modern business people as he is with the illiterate in his constituency. He was, perhaps, the first Indian politician to visit Microsoft in Seattle as early as 1990, much before the software industry became fashionable in India. In the very early days of his Home Ministership, he came to Infosys on a Sunday and spent three hours with us discussing the role of the software industry in making India stronger economically. He asked several deep questions on the opportunities for growth and risks in our industry.

Folks, this is perhaps an appropriate time to talk about the extraordinary times that we are in. For the first time in 300 years, India has received the admiration of every major country in the world. India is seen as the software factory of the world and every Indian is seen as a software wizard.  Our scientists and engineers have sent a space vehicle to the moon. Tendulkar has become the batsman with the highest runs in test cricket. Our cricketers have taken on the Australian giants well. Vishwanathan Anand has become the world chess champion again. Saina Nehwal has won the world junior badminton championship. Abhinav Bindra won the first Gold medal ever in Olympics. Our GDP growth rate has been one of the highest in the world for the past several years. Our foreign exchange reserves have been bountiful. Despite the recent global financial crisis, our government and industry leaders are confident that we will continue our outstanding economic progress. However, we have not been able to translate all these achievements to better quality of life for the poor in the urban and the rural areas. Unless we can achieve inclusive growth, we cannot redeem the pledge of our founding fathers to make this country a place where the poorest of the poor child has access to decent education, healthcare, nutrition and shelter. This is the time for our people to reenergize and rededicate ourselves to consolidate on the gains we have made so far. This is the time when our people have to embrace discipline, hard work, commitment and dedication to the nation, attributes that Shri Advani has demonstrated amply. This is the time when optimism has to conquer pessimism, when proaction has to defeat apathy, when firmness has to annihilate vacillation, when hard work has to take precedence over laziness and when clarity of purpose has to overcome confusion.

For this to happen, we have to create a new mindset that will see every obstacle as an opportunity; every hardship as a path to greater glory; every sacrifice as a joy; and every responsibility a sacred calling. Shri Advani’s life is a wonderful example of the above mindset. Folks, there are many messages in this book that guide us to a desirable destination which will make this a country that posterity will be proud of, that will place India in the forefront of the comity of nations, and that brings joy to the forgotten ones in this country.

Thank you.