The country has to get back to self-reliance on the basis of “what we do for ourselves” and draw a new path if it wants to prevent the situation of the US and the former USSR dominating the world in the past with China now replacing USSR, eminent scientist V. Siddhardh has said.
“There will be only number one and two and no number three in such a situation,” he said speaking at a seminar on “Indira Gandhi- her commitment and contribution to nation’s progress in Science and Technology, marking her birth centenary.”
Self-reliance was non-negotiable for the scientific community, he said adding political dispensations had exchanged it for globalisation.
Indira Gandhi had regarded scientific community as her constituency and nurtured it with semi-motherly attitude giving them the freedom required.
Dr. Siddhardh said it was her decision to build nuclear submarine in Visakhapatnam after the 1971 war and also set up radar stations across the country to forecast cyclones.
No post-colonial country had built institutions of science and technology with such breadth and depth as India did and the country owed to Indira Gandhi, he said.
President of Centre for Policy Studies A. Prasanna Kumar recalling her address to the Science Congress in Visakhapatnam said she was the first to speak about taking technology to villages and rural engineering.
‘Extraordinary courage’
She was a leader of extraordinary courage. “Having won the Bangladesh war, she stood up against the US with Nixon and Kissinger at the helm and had the daring to sign a treaty with the former USSR while being in the US.”
Continuing with non-alignment founded by her father along with other leaders, Indira Gandhi reached the high point with the conduct of NAM summit in the country, Prof. Prasanna Kumar said ranking her with world’s greatest leaders.
Vijayalakshmi Gupta, former secretary, Defence Finance and former member of TRAI, said Indira Gandhi was responsible for the second wave of scientific, technological and agricultural revolution providing food security.
She believed that the country should not be a technological client if self-reliance were to be achieved.
Former Union Minister of State for Defence M.M. Pallam Raju said self-reliance was an invaluable lesson to the present dispensation.
Indira Gandhi’s 17-year term was devoted, among others, to bringing people above poverty line and making loans accessible to farmers.
Rajya Sabha member T. Subbarami Reddy, former Union Minister Killi Kripa Rani, former Minister P. Balaraju, former MLA Dronamraju Srinivasa Rao, city Congress president Behera Bhaskara Rao and others participated.