Text of PM's Independence Day speech

Following is the text of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's address to the nation on Independence Day:

Following is the text of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's address to the nation on Independence Day:

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"My dear countrymen, brothers, sisters and dear children — greetings to all of you on this day, the anniversary of our Independence.

This is a day we salute our Tiranga and feel pride and joy in watching it fly high in the blue sky.

This is a day we remember and honour the leaders of our Freedom Movement for the struggle they waged under the inspiring leadership of Mahatma Gandhiji and for the victory they won against foreign rule.

This is a day we thank our soldiers and security forces for their bravery and commitment. We salute them for their dedication and discipline — farmers, workers, teachers, professionals, scientists and our elected representatives.

In every walk of life, each one of us contributes in our own way to the building of our dear Bharat. What is that Bharat that we all wish to build?

A Bharat that is just and humane.

A Bharat that treats all its citizens as equals.

A Bharat that is prosperous. A Bharat that lives in peace.

A Bharat in which every person is literate and healthy.

A Bharat in which everyone who seeks work is able to find it, and works for a brighter future for all of us. My greetings to all of you.

As I stand here before you, I am reminded of the words of our first Prime Minister Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, when he spoke to the Nation on the first anniversary of our Independence in 1948.

At that time I was a young student, and looked upon the dawn of Independence as the opening up of new vistas of opportunities to build an India of our dreams.

Panditji had then said, "All of us talk of India and all of us demand many things from India. What do we give her in return?" Panditji asked, and he said, "India will ultimately give us what we give her of love and service and productive and creative work. India will be what we are: our thoughts and actions will shape her."

Brothers and sisters, it is one brick after another that helps make a building. Millions of bricks go to make a great building.

In the same manner, the efforts of millions of people go into the formation of a nation. The process of nation building is a great enterprise of adventure and creativity.

It requires all of us to work together, bonded by our love for our Motherland. This love flows from our identity as Indians. Whatever be our religion, region, language, caste or culture, we are all Indians and India is ours.

Our strength derives from our unity in diversity. The principles of secularism, social justice and the equality of all before law are the defining features of our nation.

Today is a day we re-dedicate ourselves to the service of our nation, and of each and every citizen, especially those less fortunate than us.

This day comes for us in the middle of the monsoons. Each year when we meet here and see the Tiranga being unfurled on the Red Fort, we also look at the clouds above and wonder whether it would rain. This year too we have looked at the skies with anxiety.

In Andhra Pradesh I went to understand the problems of farmers, suffering from the impact of drought, and to hold the hands of the families that had lost their breadwinner due to the unbearable burden of debt.

For miles together I could see no water. In Assam and Bihar I went to share the concern of people whose lives have been dislocated by floods.

For miles without end I could see only water. Drought and floods are two fundamental problems that continue to bring suffering to our rural population. We need concerted action to deal with these perennial problems.

Our Government has already taken some steps to deal with them. We intend to take more steps in future. We need to insulate our people from the impact of drought by creating local level water security.

We have to mobilise our people to come forward to take up the challenge of water conservation and management. We are committed to increasing public investment in irrigation and addressing the specific problems of each river basin, in an environment and people-friendly manner.

Water is a national resource, and we have to take an integrated view of our country's water resources, our needs and our policies and water utilisation practices. We need to ensure the equitable use of scarce water resources.

The waters of our sacred rivers have for centuries nurtured our civilisation. They are the threads that run through the fabric of our nation. We cannot allow these waters to divide us. I urge you and all our political leaders to take a national and a holistic view of the challenge of managing our water resources.

Dealing with the problem of water is an important commitment we have made as part of our "New Deal for Rural India".

We have also taken steps to address the problem of availability and access to credit in rural areas. The "New Deal" that rural India needs must encompass investment in irrigation, credit delivery, healthcare, availability of electricity, primary education, rural roads and the modernisation of the infrastructure for agriculture.

We must increasingly use modern science and technology to address the needs of dry land farming, the diversification of our cropping pattern, micro-irrigation and the quality of our livestock.

Improving rural connectivity and access to information can enrich the farm community. Here Governmental initiative can be multiplied by the effort of private enterprise and community action.

Friends, more than three decades ago, Indira Gandhiji had given the call "Garibi Hatao". We have reduced the incidence of poverty to some extent, but there is much more remaining to be done.

While liberalising and modernising our economy and enabling individual enterprise to blossom, we must pay special attention to the elimination of poverty and the empowerment of Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes, Other Backward Castes and minorities.

Our development strategies for tribal areas must be adequately sensitive to their felt needs and aspirations.

The empowerment of women is an important priority and the education of the girl child is vital to it. Our children are our future.

In framing our policies we must keep the interests of future generations in mind. The Government will pursue social and economic policies that are conducive to the proper growth and development of our children, investing in their education, health and nutrition. A healthy child makes a healthy nation.

Employment generation has not kept pace with demand for jobs. Government will address this deficiency in the growth process by encouraging the growth of small and medium enterprises, agro industries and sectors like tourism, where there is a high job potential.

There is also an urgent need to provide employment in rural areas especially in areas suffering from prolonged drought.

The "Food For Work Programme" will be an important part of our strategy to deal with this challenge. New investment in the infrastructure sector will also help generate new jobs.

Our approach has to be one of seeking faster growth, while ensuring that the benefits of growth are more evenly distributed.

Our policies for higher economic growth and modernisation will be combined with an emphasis on social justice, communal harmony, rural development, regional balance and concern for the environment.

Dear Countrymen, from the National Common Minimum Programme, I have identified seven priority sectors for focussed attention. These are agriculture, water, education, health care, employment, urban renewal and infrastructure.

These seven sectors (saat sutra) are the pillars of the development bridge we must cross to ensure higher economic growth and more equitable social and economic development.