Indira Gandhi was first and last Prime Minister to take tough necessary decision on Environmental Issues says Jairam Ramesh at #TLFDelhi
ASHISH KEDIA / ROHIT SHARMA
NEW DELHI : Former Environment Minister of India and Congress leader Jairam Ramesh today spoke in detail about different environmental issues and concerns at Time Literature Festival.
He said, “On environmental issues it is very necessary to make tough choices.
Sometime you antagonize development lobby, environmentalist, activist or some other lobby but when need arises it is necessary to do so”.
Talking about India’s past Prime Minister Indira Gandhi’s role in it, he said ,”Indira Gandhi was the first Prime Minister to appoint a full time Family Planning minister. Before that most minister’s believed in Gandhian ways of family planning which in other words meant leaving it as a volunteer choice and not imposing anything”.
Speaking about India’s passion about environmental issues he said, “In 1972 Indira Gandhi was the first Prime Minister in the entire world who took part at Stockholm conference on environment and spoke enthusiastically about environmental concerns”.
About Indian values and tradition being strongly attached to environmental issues, Jairam Ramesh also presented Indira Gandhi’s vision about the same and said,” She firmly believed that Indian cultural and traditional values are so strong that we need to foreign lessons and teaching in this regards”.
Talking about her famous statement Jairam Ramesh said, ” Indira Gandhi used to say that Western civilization is based on conquest of nature whereas Indian culture is based on living in harmony with nature. We worship animals, rivers, hills and plants”.
He culminated his informed talk with witty one-liner summarizing everything thats questionable about India’s approach towards environmental problem. He says, ” Indians have great passion for passing environmental laws but even more enthusiasm for bypassing them”.
