Thaindian News

New Delhi, March 9 (IANS) Prime Minister Manmohan Singh greeted senior Rajya Sabha member and Indian Council for Cultural Relations (ICCR) president Karan Singh on his 80th birthday Wednesday, and released a 42-minute documentary based on his beliefs on the occasion.

The prime minister said Karan Singh was “a man of great learning, who has been a part and parcel of the civilisation of Jammu and Kashmir”.

The documentary, “I Believe: Universal Values for a Global Society”, is directed by filmmaker Raja Choudhury, an award-winning multimedia producer. It puts forth a compelling vision and seeks to provide a solution to the problems facing India.

A book, “Kashmir and Beyond: 1966-84″ based on 300 letters exchanged between former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi and Karan Singh was unveiled to mark the occasion. The book has been published by Penguin-India.

“I feel privileged to greet Karan Singh on the happy occasion of his 80th birthday. We wish him a long life ahead and as purposeful and active a life as the one he has led till now. I can think of no other Indian who has come to represent and symbolize the ethos of our great and ancient civilization than Karan Singh. He is a man of great learning, of great wisdom, of great liberalism and great humanism,” the prime minister said.

The prime minister said Karan Singh’s life in public service is as rich as it is diverse. “For most of his adult life, he has been a part and parcel of the political evolution of Jammu and Kashmir. As our ambassador to the US, he brought grace and dignity to a difficult assignment at a difficult time,” he said.

“We live in a cusp of great changes around us and as we look back, we see behind us a century of great contradictions - a century of conflict and freedom; of great deprivation and great progress of the assertion of great individuals and great possibilities… a century in which every human being can hope to be literate and clad,” he said.

“Karan Singh has been a vocal and passionate advocate of India’s cultural diplomacy and soft power. As the president of ICCR, he has been able to expand India’s cultural footprints across the world,” the prime minister said.

He said there was “renewed interest in India across the world and people are keen to know what makes India tick.”

“I believe that India’s commensurate role within the comity of nations should encompass a much larger element of cultural diplomacy and exchange. It is through the wisdom and vision of people like Dr. Karan Singh that we can make this happen,” he said.

Probing the triggers for the documentary and his world view, Karan Singh said: “I have been in public life for over 60 years. Recently, I asked myself the question: what I really believed in, for myself and for the country?”

“India has so much to offer to the world and yet I feel a sense of frustration among our young people,” the president of ICCR said.

“I hope we can initiate a dialogue where citizens have a chance to come forward and share their beliefs with the country,” he added.

The documentary explores Karan Singh’s vision of how people can shape and guide the world in the 21st century.