Rajiv Gandhi was A Pioneer of India's 21st Century, says Mani Shankar Aiyar

Rajiv Gandhi, who rendered indescribable services as the 7th Prime Minister of India, was a pioneer in the development of India in the 21st century and through his vision and innovative reforms, the country has set a new chapter in all fields, said Mani Shankar Aiyar, former Union Minister of Panchayati Raj. Former Deputy Chairman of the Planning Commission Dr. Montek Singh Ahluwalia said that Gandhi spent a great deal of time visiting villages, to see how our rural development programmes worked on the ground.

Participating as the Chief Guest in the Round -Table Meeting on 'Rajiv Gandhi: Vision and Mission for Transforming India in the 21st Century' organised by Academy of Grassroots Studies and Research of India (AGRASRI) on the eve of the 80th Birth Anniversary Celebrations of Rajiv Gandhi, he recollected his memories and said that I am privileged to have been associated intimately with the evolution and implementation of Panchayati Raj from the time of Rajiv Gandhi to the present.  He places in perspective Rajiv Gandhi's innovative foreign policy openings to China and Pakistan and in the domestic sphere, the Technology Mission and above all, Panchayati Raj. The event was organised in Tirupati.

Reviewing the developments in Panchayati Raj system after the passage of the 73rd Constitutional Amendment Act nearly 31 years ago, Shri Mani Shankar Aiyar elucidates that it is regrettable that many state governments are unable to fulfill the dreams of Rajiv Gandhi, who envisioned that 3 F's - Functions, Finances and Functionaries should be perfected for Panchayats and that the power should be concentrated at the village level.

Dr. D. Sundar Ram, Director of AGRASRI, acted as moderator of the proceedings of the Round -Table Meeting. Later, the Panelists Prof. M. Aslam, Former Vice-Chancellor of IGNOU, New Delhi; Dr. W.R. Reddy, IAS( Retd.), Former Director - General of the NIRDPR, Hyderabad and Prof. Madan Mohan Goel, Vice-Chancellor of 3 Universities summarised the multi-dimensional reforms brought out by Rajiv Gandhi in various sectors for Transforming India in the 21st Century.

In the post-lunch session, the Panelists Shri J. Murali, IAS (Retd.), Former Special Secretary to the Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh, Amaravathi; Shri Venkatrao Y. Ghorpade, Working Chairman of the Karnataka State Panchayati Raj Parishad, Bengaluru; Prof. M. Gopinath Reddy, Consultant, Centre for Economic and Social Studies, Hyderabad and Prof. K. Gireesan, Director, School of Government, MIT- World Peace University, Pune discussed in a lengthy manner towards the unfinished agenda of Rajiv Gandhi on Panchayati Raj and Power to the People at the grassroots level in rural India.

Dr. Montek Singh Ahluwalia

At the Valedictory Session, Dr. Montek Singh Ahluwalia, who served as Special Secretary to the Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi and Deputy Chairman of the Planning Commission of India nearly a decade said that 33 years after Rajiv Gandhi assassinated, it is relevant to look back and reflect on Rajiv Gandhi's contributions to India's economic reforms. 

Praising the visionary of Rajiv Gandhi as the youngest Prime Minister, Dr. Ahluwalia observed that Rajiv's energies were not just focussed on industry. He spent a great deal of time visiting villages, to see how our rural development programmes worked on the ground. He saw that these programmes suffered from large leakages due to administrative inefficiency and corruption, and came to the conclusion that the only solution was to delegate greater authority to the locally elected bodies. This led to the Idea of giving constitutional status to Panchayati Raj Institutions (PRI's) in rural areas and urban local bodies in urban areas.

In the deliberations of the Round -Table Meeting, a large number of elected representatives of Panchayati Raj Institutions, academicians, researchers and SHG members interacted with the Panelists on various issues.