Naveen Patnaik – Chief Minister, Odisha:

Proud moment for all of us to come together and discuss commemoration of 75 years of India’s independence.

Congratulate Government of India and Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi ji for taking this initiative.

With the passage of time, the youth need to be reminded of the sacrifices of our forefathers in a context they can identify with, one of the ways in which this can be done is to highlight the events of our freedom struggle and develop the places linked to it.

We need to highlight significant event led by lesser known leaders as well as capture the Pan-Indian nature of the movement.

Many events that happened outside the boundaries of India need to be captured.

Our greatest tribute to the founding father of our nation will be to carry forward in letter and spirit the values and ethos of our Independence movement as enshrined in the Constitution of India.

The ideals of freedom, justice & equality which defined the freedom struggle need to be reiterated in today’s circumstances.

All efforts should be made to ensure every Indian, residing anywhere in the world, should be touched as part of the commemoration ceremonies.

Through technology and social media, this is quite possible. As quoted by Gandhiji, “The best way to find yourself is to lose yourself in the service of others”.

Service oriented activities can be part of the programme to encourage community service, especially for the youth.