India becoming a republic was a major milestone, says president
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These are special occasions and we must strive, in the manner of the leaders of our national movement and the framers of our constitution, to build the edifice of a better India — an India where each and every citizen will be able to realize his or her full potential. An India that will reach its deserved pedestal in the 21st century.
We need to further improve the lives of our hardworking farmers. Like mothers, they toil to feed us — more than a billion of us.
We need to continue to modernize and strengthen our strategic manufacturing sector so as to provide the valiant personnel of our armed forces, and our police and paramilitary forces, the equipment that they need.
We need to move ahead rapidly on the Sustainable Development Goals — goals that commit us to eliminating poverty and hunger, to universal access to quality education and health care, and to giving our daughters equal opportunity in every field.
We need to make clean, green, efficient and affordable energy reach our people.
We need to ensure that housing for all becomes a living reality for the millions of families who await their own home.
We need to craft a modern India that is both a land of talent — and a land of unlimited opportunities for that talent.
Above all, our republic cannot rest and cannot be satisfied without meeting the basic needs and essential dignity of our less well-off brothers and sisters. I refer to those from a less privileged socio-economic background, from the weaker communities and from families that still live at the edge of poverty. It is our sacred obligation to eliminate the curse of poverty in the shortest possible time. This is nonnegotiable for the republic.
The promise of a developed India beckons us.
This is the new stage of our nation building project on which we have embarked.
This is the republic that our young people need to take forward and enhance — in keeping with their vision, their ambition and their ideals. And their vision, ambition and ideals, I am confident, will always draw inspiration from both our republican values — as well as from our ancient Indian ethos.
With those words, I once again wish all of you a very happy Republic Day. And wish all of you a very bright and fulfilling future.