National values can de nurtured : Kalam

New Delhi, Nov 19 (UNI) Acknowledging the importance of national values in building up character of a country, former president A P J Abdul Kalam today said national values can be nurtured through possible solution.

He was speaking on a two-day national summit on 'The National Value crisis and Redressal', organised by the Foundation for Restoration of National values, in the India Habitat Center.

''There is a possible solution for nurturing National Values, whatever comes from soul is 'The Truth'. Soul can be experienced by a virtuous and courageous person, in a wicked person this faculty is dead,'' Mr Kalam said on the last day of the summit.

''It is by sin or corruption one is unable to discriminate right from wrong. Work with integrity succeed with integrity and get profits with integrity,'' he added.

Swami Bhoomananda, the founder of the movement, said if we evolve our own methods which are value enriched many of our problems would be solved.

Underlining the present crisis in Judiciary he said, ''We have a whole Gamut of Supreme Court judgements which are still unimplemented.

''We the people need to see that the Law enforcing agencies implement the directions laid down by the courts.'' He questioned how could a President or a Prime Minister of a country have security for themselves as long as the security of its citizens was not ensured" Referring to the failure of government machinery even after 60 years of Independence, he said we the common man who was neither a Govt official,nor a politician would have to make the difference.

Even stones will melt if we are righteous, Swami Bhoomananda added.

Mr Arun Maira, former Chairman of the Boston Consulting Group in India, said we should undersatand that the flip side of freedom is responsibility, good values lead to good business and corporates must be lead by example to inspire others.

Stressing the need of health care as a Fundamental Right, Dr Ranjit Roy Chaudhry, Emeritus Scientist at national Institute of Ayurveda and Integrative Medicine said till now Health care came under the "Right to life' but 'Right to health' should also be made a fundamental Right.

He said in recent years there was mushrooming growth of private medical colleges but the number of teachers to impart medical knowledge had not increased which had brought deteioriation in the standards of medical professionals.

Concluding the session, Dr Sreedharan the president of the Foundation for Restoration of National values said all the suggestions of the speakers gathered at the Summit would be heeded and a draft plan would be made accordingly and with the assistance of Judiciary so that a plan of action would be drawn to implement it.

Other speakers on the second day of the Summit were Sri Pratyush Sinha (Central Vigilance commissioner), prominent corporate leaders such as Mr Gurcharan Das and Mr Arun Maira and educationists such as Mr Arun Kapur, Janaki Rajan and Ms Vibha Pathasarthi amongst others.

UNI SNG GT KN2337