Speaker inspires students to uphold democratic values

New Delhi, Aug 11 (UNI) Interacting with school students, Lok Sabha Speaker Somnath Chatterjee today asked the young generation to uphold the values of democracy when they get elected to Parliament in future.

The students, who were to march from 'Gandhi Smriti' to Parliament House to present their pledge to strengthen Parliamentary Democracy to Speaker, got a pleasant surprise as he himself came to meet to them after police denied permission for the procession.

Talking to over 300 students from ten NCR schools, Mr Chatterjee said he was deeply touched by their act and felt inspired to work more towards strengthening parliamentary democracy in the country.

''When you get elected to Parliament I trust you will uphold the values of democracy,'' Mr Chatterjee said.

On his arrival the Speaker was greeted by a group of students holding the national tricolour and another group of 144 children holding replicas of the 144 columns of Parliament.

The students from Class X and XII are participants in the ongoing programme of 'Taking Children To Gandhi' (TCTG).

TCTG Programme is a civil society initiative. Working Group on Alternative Strategies, Gandhi Peace Foundation, Gandhi Smriti and Darshan Samiti and India International Centre jointly launched the Programme on April 23.

Suhas Borker, who heads Group on Alternative Strategies, said the children are committed to strengthening democracy and would want to be in the vanguard of the movement for change.

"To put it simply in Gandhiji's words 'be the change you want to see in the world," Mr Borker said .

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