L K Advani Speech at the GIT silver jubilee

These are some snippets of the speech delivered by Shri.L K Advani yesterday at the GIT college silver jubilee celebrations.
The speech was more political than anything else, what else can a politician say anyways.

“It gives me great pleasure to come to Belgaum — rather, Belagavi, its new name — to participate in the Silver Jubilee celebrations of the Gogte Institute of Technology,

When a group from Belgaum comprising Shri Angadi, Shri Kulkarni, Prof. Rao and others met me a couple of months back to invite me for this function, the first question that struck me was: Why is a society dedicated to law education running an engineering college? The mystery was solved when I learnt more about the history of the Karnataka Law Society.

Tribute to Belgaum

I must make a special mention here of another great educational society based in Belgaum, which has made an immense contribution to the spread of higher and professional education in this state. I am referring to the Karnataka Lingayat Education (KLE) Society. I am very happy that its chairman, Shri Prabhakar Kore is in our midst today. Thanks to the vision and dedicated efforts of organizations like these, Belgaum has indeed emerged as the most important hub of higher education between two great centres of learning — Pune and Bangalore.

Friends, Belgaum is a beautiful city, also a very special city. It is here that Mahatma Gandhi presided over a session of the AICC in 1924 — the only time when he became the Congress president. It is here that Swami Vivekananda stayed for 12 days in meditation in 1892. I am told that the citizens of Belgaum have preserved the place where he stayed in the precincts of the beautifully renovated Ramakrishna Math in the city.

Not far from here is the town of Kittur, which was the karmabhoomi of Rani Chennamma. She is one of those heroes and heroines of India’s Freedom Struggle who sounded the bugle of rebellion against the British rule even before the 1857 War of Independence. I had visited Kittur during the course of my Swarna Jayanti Rath Yatra in 1997, on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of India’s Independence. It was my Patriotic Pilgrimage, when I visited almost all the major places across the country that are associated with the heroes and martyrs of India’s glorious struggle for liberation from foreign rule.

I am told that a Kittur Utsav is opening today. I send my hearty greetings on the occasion.

Belgaum is special for another reason. I said that, before Independence, the preference of the best students was to study law. Many of them later became leading lights of the Freedom Movement. Very few engineers rose to national prominence. However, there was one exception, and that person hailed from this state — Bharat Ratna Sir M. Visveswarayya. He was truly a visionary, who had realized the importance of dams and modern irrigation systems, steel plants and other industries, well-planned cities, etc.

I am happy to note that the Visveswarayya Technological University, to which all engineering colleges in the state including this one are affiliated, is located in Belgaum.

A truly inspiring example was seen yesterday when India launched its unmanned spaceship CHANDRAYAAN – I to the Moon. It is now on its way to the moon carrying India’s Tricolour to the Moon.

It is obvious that the answer — not the entire answer, perhaps, but a substantial part of the answer — lies in good education being made available to every Indian. Education is the key that unlocks an individual’s future, and also a nation’s future.

I wish to make a specific affirmation about Educational Reforms. Progress in the education sector is hampered by the remnants of the License-Quota-Raj system, which had held back India’s economic growth. Therefore, liberation of the education sector from unnecessary restrictions and outdated controls, while strengthening proper regulation, will be one of our top priorities. We will ensure big increase in the number of institutions, seats and facilities in all streams of higher and professional education.”

Source: BJP Press Release

Photo as published in The Hindu