Develop 600,000 villages of India through PURA/Providing Urban Amenities in Rural Areas through 4connectivities:Physical,Electronic,Knowledge,Economy!

Kalam: Learn Sinhala, Tamil and English and make Sri Lanka a great nation
Exclusive Interview

January 20, 2012, 12:00 pm

BY S VENKAT NARAYAN
By Our Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI, January 20: India’s former President Avul Pakir Jainulabdeen Abdul Kalam has appealed to Sri Lankans to use the Trilingual Initiative being launched in Colombo on Saturday to learn Sinhala, Tamil and English and make the island-nation great.

In an exclusive interview to The Island on the eve of his departure for Colombo, Kalam said: "Languages have a very important role in connecting the individual minds, articulate aspirations of the people and shape the dreams of a nation. Learning in one’s mother tongue is natural. But learning the other languages of the people of your nation and a link language will create harmony of thought and can lead to a prosperous and peaceful society."



He hadded: "I fervently hope that Sri Lankans will use the opportunity being provided by this three-language formula and make their nation great."



Kalam is especially visiting Sri Lanka to join President Mahinda Rajapaksa to launch the" Triligual Sri Lanka Initiative" in Colombo on Saturday.



Asked how India can help Sri Lankans rebuild their country after the three-decade-long civil war ended, he said: "The process of rebuilding in Sri Lanka is going on between our two countries. What is important is how fast rebuilding is taking place, and how quickly and fully the benefits reach the affected people. Here, what we need is only compassion in understanding the pain and generosity in removing the pain in time."



Question: What will be your advice to Sri Lanka’s majority Sinhalese and minority Tamils and Muslims to live together without ethnic tensions?



Kalam: My nation, India, with its population of multi-culture, multi-religion, multi-language has a very important tool of living together for more than 60 years. That is: democracy, democracy and democracy. Democracy gives equal rights to every citizen to prosper and live peacefully. Since Sri Lanka and India are close friends, let the people of our two countries enjoy together the fruits of democracy.



Answering a question about his visit to Jaffna on Monday, he said he will be meeting the youth in the University of Jaffna and the Hindu College. "I will definitely be very happy to meet the scholars, professionals and the concerned citizens in the Jaffna peninsula."



Kalam also said: "I would like to share an experience. My team and I have developed a Developed India Vision 2020 document on how India can transform into an economically developed nation before the year 2020. And also I have given the roadmap on how to develop 600,000 villages of India through PURA (Providing Urban Amenities in Rural Areas) through four connectivities called Physical, Electronic, Knowledge connectivities leading to Economic connectivity. I will be very happy to share these development experiences with the people of Sri Lanka, particularly the leaders and the youth."

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