Hon.
Members of Parliament, as I stand here today to greet you, my
mind is filled with emotion, and the recent past of India, with its travail
and struggle, passes before my eyes. We meet in this sovereign Parliament of
the Republic of India, and the high enterprise of serving our motherland
and the millions of our people has been entrusted to us. That is an
immense and sacred trust and, as your President, I approach it with humility
and prayer. On this historic occasion, our thoughts naturally turn to Mahatma
Gandhi and our hearts pay homage to him. Let100 us accept our great task in the spirit of the Father
of the Nation, who brought us our freedom, and120
let us always remember the message that he gave us, the message of unity and goodwill
between all the people of India, of communal harmony, of the abolition
of class distinctions and of those based on birth, caste or religion, and the evolution
of a peaceful, cooperative India, which gives opportunities of progress to all
her citizens. It is the firm policy of my Government to
maintain peace and friendship with all the nations of the world and to
help200 in every way possible
in the maintenance of world peace. The Republic of India inherits no enmities
or traditional rivalries with other nations and my Government intends to
continue a policy directed towards securing peace in the world and
avoiding240 any alignment
which leads to hostilities with any nation. India is a sovereign
democratic Republic, but she has decided to continue her association
with the Commonwealth of Nations. That is a unique development, new to
constitutional law and history. We thereby do not limit our freedom in any
way, but we indicate our desire for continued friendship and co-operation
with300 the group of nations
represented in the Commonwealth. My Prime Minister recently attended the
Conference of Commonwealth Foreign Ministers held in Colombo.
That conference was an example of how independent nations can meet
together and discuss, in a friendly way, the great problems that face the world
and endeavour to find common ways of action, without in any way infringing360 upon the independence and sovereignty of
one another. Our relations with foreign powers are friendly and my
Government has exchanged diplomatic representation with a very large number
of countries. Treaties of friendship have been concluded with Switzerland,
a country with400 a great
tradition of democratic freedom, and with Afghanistan with whom we have been
bound by cultural and historical ties since the dawn of history. Negotiations
have been proceeding for treaties of friendship and commerce with Iran, Nepal
and the United States of America. As you are aware, India’s Prime
Minister visited this great country recently and his visit led to a greater
understanding and respect and closer ties between India and the United
States. My Government has recently accorded480
de Jure recognition to the new Government of China and it is hoped that an
exchange of diplomatic representatives will500 take place soon. With this great country
we have had friendship and cultural contacts for more than two thousand years.
I trust that those friendly contacts will be maintained and will help in
preserving the peace of Asia and the world. With the nations of Europe, America
and Australasia, India is developing friendly contacts. It is natural
that India should be even more interested in Asia, of which she is a part, as
well as in Africa. Her primary interest is in the freedom of peoples and in
the removal of all barriers that come in the way of the600 full development of nations and peoples.
She is entirely opposed to the continuation of colonial rule, in
any shape or form, as well as to any kind of racial discrimination.
In Asia freedom is on the march; at the same time there is trouble and
turmoil in some parts of it. I earnestly trust that out of this turmoil
will emerge peace and freedom and co-operative relations between all the
countries of Asia. A historic event took place recently in the establishment of
the free and independent United States of Indonesia. We have welcomed
this more particularly because of the700
very close relations, both in the past and in the present, between the
people of India and the people of720
Indonesia. It has been an honour and privilege for us to welcome the
President of the United States of Indonesia and to convey to him and to his
people our greetings and good wishes. India has large numbers of her children
living in countries abroad, notably in Africa, in Fiji, in the West Indies,
in the island of Mauritius and elsewhere. Our advice to them has always
been that they should identify themselves with the indigenous
people and look upon800 the
country of adoption as their real home.
I
regret to say that our relations with our neighbour country,
Pakistan, are not as good as they should be and there are
several matters in dispute between us. Our history and840 culture as well as the immutable
facts of geography, compel both India and Pakistan to live in friendly
co-operation with each other. But the grievous wound caused by recent events
will take some time to heal. It is my Government’s policy to endeavour
to help in every way this process of healing. In pursuance of this policy,
my Government has900 proposed
to the Government of Pakistan that both the Governments should make a
solemn declaration for the avoidance of war as a method for the settlement of
any disputes between them, and to resort to negotiation, mediation, arbitration
or reference to some international tribunal, in order to settle such
disputes. I trust that the Pakistan Government will accept this offer960 in the spirit in which it has been
made and thus help to reduce the unfortunate tension that has
existed between the two countries.984
