Living in isolation is not an option: Ansari

17TH ANNUAL CONVOCATION OF KU

*J&K youth want to lead lives with dignity, honour

*Utilize youth potential for prosperity, against backwardness

*Better education, health for youth lead to inclusive growth

*Democratic Pol, Eco liberalization has strengthened regionalist trends

*Governor stresses on beneficial synergies among Universities

*Omar hailed for helping development of Universities

Stressing on creation of adequate facilities for technical and vocational education, the Vice President of India, Mr. Mohammad Hamid Ansari Saturday said that skill upgradation and improving employability of Jammu and Kashmir youth would open new opportunities for them in all the service sectors including IT industry.

Addressing the 17th Annual Convocation of Kashmir University at its Convocation Hall, Hazratbal here, the Vice President said that the youth of Jammu and Kashmir want to fulfil their potential and lead lives with dignity and honour. He said Government is committed to enable this and herald all the new future for the people of Jammu and Kashmir.

In his philosophical convocation address, the Vice President said, “India is engrossed in challenges of development and political empowerment. It is one-sixth of the world in terms of population and is a microcosm of the diversities that characterise our world. It has been rightly called ‘the largest multicultural society in the world’. The accommodation of diversity has been an Indian trait down the ages, made possible by an innate capacity for synthesis”, adding “how do we use this asset in the future, in what manner can we harness it for accommodating the competing demands of identity, autonomy and integration in a world that is perennially shrinking and inter-dependent, how would this translate into institutions and practices, how would it impact on the daily lives of citizens, what may be the pitfalls that need to be avoided and what in concrete terms, should be expectations of youth from society, need to be responded meaningfully providing for representation of the collectivise in the formal democratic structures”.

Mr. Hamid Ansari said “the special provision for guarantees or affirmative action in six broad categories – caste, class, backwardness, religion, region, sex and language – is evidence of this approach for securing justice and ensuring cultural autonomy in a composite culture within a framework of a quasi-federal structure driven by an overriding imperative of maintaining territorial integrity”. He said, “accommodation of diversity has thus been consciously incorporated as a distinctive feature of the Indian State. It implies that a standardized image of an Indian cannot be constructed; if presented, it is partial, incomplete, misleading. Despite this accommodative framework, there have been acts of omission and commission impacting on identity and integration issues”.

Vice President said, “democratic politics and economic liberalisation has also strengthened regionalist trends. Linguistic reorganization has ceased to be the culmination of the process of expression of identities. Linguistically homogenous states have been subdivided over grievances of development. New demands for statehood continue to be made on grounds of ethnicity, culture or regional grievances. The imperative of better governance adds a sense of urgency to these”. He said “these impulses of identity assertion and recognition confront two contradictory trends at the micro and macro levels. On the one hand, forms of identity assertion at national and state levels combined with existing patterns of political mobilization have been perceived as thwarting the impulses towards internal integration and consolidation. A modern market economy does not coexist with autarky. On the contrary, societal transformation resulting from economic growth and urbanization has erased or downplayed certain identities while emphasizing new ones. Each of these impacts the political agenda at local, regional and national levels”.

Mr. Ansari elaborating said that at the other end of the spectrum, we are living in a global village where new integrating impulses have gone beyond national boundaries weaving nations into a common fabric of economic and financial architecture , shared membership of multi-lateral institutions and common value systems governing individual and state behaviour. Countervailing forces have also emerged. Thus, globalization has produced a counter trend of resurgence of nationalism and of an emphasis on national and cultural identities. Domestically, one notices certain unhealthy trends towards a homogenising nationalism that flattens diversities, and has little respect for local cultures, value systems and ways of life, he added.

Vice President said, “It is clear that living in isolation is not an option. It is nevertheless essential to realize that there are many ways of living together. Integration is necessary and desirable; assimilation is neither desirable nor practical. Throughout our history, we have seen identities being built on a series of inclusions and exclusions reflective of ground realities. The challenge in the future, as in the past, would be to maintain a balance in favour of inclusions”.

Mr. Ansari said, “the youth in the age group of 15-35 years constitute nearly 40 percent of the total population of India. It is the same in the case of Jammu and Kashmir. This group represents the most vibrant and dynamic demographic segment and constitutes potentially a most valuable human resource. Youth empowerment would mean effective participation in decision making processes, with requisite knowledge, skills and capabilities. It is premised on attainment of higher educational levels and expertise by our young citizens, in line with their abilities and aptitudes, and access to employment opportunities”.

Vice President said that two years earlier he as the Chairman of the Working Group on Confidence Building Measures, has submitted recommendations focused on Kashmir youth and Prime Minister had expressed complete agreement with the view of the Working Group that implementation was the key to retaining the confidence of the people.

Mr. Ansari said the potential of youth must be utilized to get out of the backwardness trap of low economic activity, low employment and low income generation adding that better education and health for the youth lead to inclusive growth where the poor continue to grow and benefit from it.

Governor, Mr. N. N. Vohra, who is also Chancellor of the University, in his address said, “from times immemorial Kashmir has been a seat of learning and a forum for scholarly exchanges and intellectual discourses. The people of Kashmir have made rich contribution to the growth of languages, art and culture and to the evolution of harmonized pluralistic ethos which symbolize the essence of its deeply secular traditions”. He said that the composite culture of Kashmir manifests the essence of Kashmiriyat, which must be protected and preserved by the upcoming generations.

Asserting that knowledge is recognised as the key driving force in the 21st century, the Governor said that the Eleventh Plan places very high priority on education as a crucial instrument for rapidly achieving inclusive growth, with specific emphasis on excellence and quality. “Our aspirations to emerge as a globally competitive player will depend on our knowledge resource. Therefore, the need to connect to knowledge is greater than ever before”, he maintained.

Dwelling on the growth of facilities of higher education in Jammu and Kashmir, the Governor said that successive State governments in J&K have, carried forward the historical learning tradition and rightly projected education as one of the high priority areas of human resource development. He said that the establishment of Jammu and Kashmir University in 1948 was a landmark event in the history of education in the State and recalled that the first convocation of this university was held in 1950 in which luminaries like Shri Rajagopalachari, Pt. Jawaharlal Nehru and Sheikh Mohammad Abdullah had participated. He said that over the course of time, the university has grown both in its outreach and standards of teaching and research.

The Governor said that with a view to take higher education to the remote and far-flung areas, the University is setting up satellite campuses at various places in the Kashmir division. He also mentioned that the University of Kashmir, which has been accredited as a grade A University by the National Assessment and Accreditation Council, must consider all possible means to enlarge and deepen the interaction programmes through collaborative linkages with reputed institutions in identified areas of expertise, while ensuring that teaching, learning and research go together.

Highlighting the need for ensuring that all the universities of the State evolve practical arrangements for sharing resources and expertise to establish mutually beneficial synergies, the Governor said that it is imperative to consolidate all available assets for maximizing the benefits thereof.

The Governor also laid stress on the need for guiding and assisting the students for preparing them to face the challenges successfully. He observed that this can be done by developing entrepreneurship development programmes through close and dynamic collaboration with all other Universities in the State. Such an approach would contribute to generating employment opportunities and income raising avenues for the youth of Jammu and Kashmir.

The Governor thanked the Vice President for being the Chief Guest at the Convocation. He also congratulated all those who received degrees, honours and awards at the Convocation and wished them high success in their future careers.

Earlier, the Vice Chancellor of the University, Prof. Riyaz Punjabi presented Vice Chancellor’s Report highlighting the vision and mission of the University, its development and extension programmes, academic progress, research output, international and national linkage, library facilities, special recognition of departments, student placement, e-governance, sports and extra-curricular activities, supporting services, quality assurance and enhancement and future plans.

Prof. Punjabi said that University of Kashmir was amongst the first few universities that volunteered for peer assessment by National Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC), an autonomous institution established by the University Grants Commission (UGC) of India in 1994, to monitor and assess the teaching-learning adding that University of Kashmir obtained Grade ‘A’.

Prof. Riyaz hailed the Chief Minister and Pro-Chancellor of the University, Mr. Omar Abdullah’s keen interest in the development and growth of the University. He acknowledged the support of Chief Minister for acquiring of 260 kanals of land costing Rs. 52 crores at Zakura, Srinagar by the University for its further expansion.

The Governor on the occasion presented degrees, medals and cash awards to the passing out students at the graduate, post-graduate, master of philosophy and doctor of philosophy levels.

The Chief Minister honoured the chief guest Vice President of India by presenting him a Kashmiri Shawl on the occasion.

The Speaker Legislative Assembly, Mr. Mohammad Akbar Lone, Ministers, Parliament Members, legislators, University faculty, educationists and university syndicate members were also present on the occasion.