Good, talented people should join politics, PM tells students
6 Sept 2015 4:51 AM IST
In his second interaction with students on Teachers' Day celebration after becoming the PM, Modi gave a pep talk asking students not to get deterred by failure in pursuit of their goals while advising parents to refrain from foisting their own career choices on children. Encouraging students to develop leadership qualities, the PM said he has asked the HRD <g data-gr-id="37">Minisry</g> to award aptitude certificates rather than character certificates, <g data-gr-id="38">relflecting</g> the overall personality of students when they leave school.
During a candid interaction with students, Modi lamented, "Politics has <g data-gr-id="39">aquired</g> a bad name in the country. People fear, they cannot come here and that good people should not join it. This has hurt the country much," he said. A relaxed Modi responded to a range of questions including on his school days and dress sense during his 105-minute interaction with 800 students and 60 teachers from schools in Delhi who participated in the event at the Manekshaw auditorium here. Students from nine other states joined the programme through video conference. In <g data-gr-id="32">democracy</g>, political parties are an important <g data-gr-id="41">constitutent</g> and it is crucial that good, intelligent and talented people from all spheres participate. The more good people join, the better it will be for the nation.
"When Mahatma Gandhi spearheaded the freedom movement, people from all walks participated. Therefore, the independence movement was very powerful," he said.
Modi also called upon the bright minds from various professions to devote at least one hour a week or 100 hours annually to teaching students, infusing a new strength in the area of education.
However, he in a lighter vein added that politicians should not do so as they would end up "teaching something else". When a student from Goa asked him about his favourite sport, Modi quipped, "We all know the games politicians play." He went on to narrate how as a youngster in a family with limited means, he did not pursue any dedicated sport but had learnt how to climb trees.
Please call me Mukherjee sir, Prez asks students
"I am just your Mukherjee sir. I am not the president of India or a politician now. I would be happy if you call me Mukherjee sir," President Pranab Mukherjee requested students on a day he took an off from his high-profile responsibilities as the head of state to teach a class on the eve of Teachers' Day. A <g data-gr-id="61">visibly-happy</g> Mukherjee, who taught the students at the Sarvodaya Vidyalaya on the president's estate the brief political history of India since independence, even asked the children to tell him when they were feeling bored.
Covering a wide spectrum of issues from pre-independence famine in Benga, to post-liberalisation India to the Anna Hazare movement for Jan Lokpal as he saw it, the president's one hour lecture was dotted with references to Mukherjee's own childhood and school years in which he recalled how he had to go to school walking through wet paddy fields in his village. "Whenever I would complain to my mother that I can't walk five km each way every day, she would say you don't have any option. You have to do it," he recalled.
Asked by a student, on who had the biggest influence in his life, Mukherjee replied it was his mother and a school principal who taught him English. The president, known for his sharp memory throughout his political career, said this talent was also due to his mother who always asked him to recollect what all he had done through the day.
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