Write speeches on the following topics. 1. Duties of an Ideal Citizen.

1. Respected chief guest Dr. Ashok Pillai, our Principal Dr. Pradeep Sanghvi, teachers and my dear friends,

Good Evening ! I am Mayank Gala, a member of the NSS unit of our college. It is indeed a matter of pride for me to share my views on the topic ‘Duties of an Ideal Citizen.’ in front of an august gathering. ‘Duties of an ideal citizen’ according to me, has become a necessity for everyone to be aware of in the present situation of our country.

The first question that comes to my mind at this moment is “Who is an ideal citizen?” Is it a person who is honest, knows his responsibilities and values, respects others needs, is conscious of taking care of the environment and thus contributing to the society in general making it a better place to stay? , Yes, an ideal citizen ideally should have all these qualities.

I personally feel that an ideal citizen should not consider his duties as obligations and fulfill them on his own urge. If all of us make a sincere effort to carry on with our jobs, the society is bound to prosper. Since we all are members of the society, to make it exemplary is our duty. We need to remember this at every step we take in our lives and things will fall into their own places.

Here, I can give some examples which all of us can do easily. I know that there are big words like trustworthiness, honesty, courtesy, respecting the rights of others as well as laws, and these are the personal traits of an ideal citizen. But I want to give you a simple list of things which all of us can follow easily.

My list begins with a simple task of not littering the environment, followed by, conserving water, encouraging greenery in our housing societies, wearing helmets and also encouraging our pillons to wear one, maintaining dignity of all the communities and last but not the least, paying taxes on time.

Of course, the list will be longer than this. But “well begun is half done”. And the most important things, I remind all of us again that the “charity begins at home” So, let’s start!

I thank the organizers to give me an opportunity to talk to all of you. I am also grateful to each and every person in the audience for their patient hearing. I am convinced that we can fullfill our dreams of having an ideal society. 

Thank you !

2. Respected judges and my dear friends, I am Sandeep Agarwal wishing all of you a very good afternoon.

Today, I am going to talk on ‘Merits of Democracy’ I am sure, we all remember the definition Abraham Lincoln gave of democracy that it is “Government of the people, for the people and by the people”. In short, I can say that democracy is rule of the people. 

So, what can be the merits of the rule of the people? The first merit that immediately comes to my mind is that recognizes the strength of people’s will which is expressed through their elected representatives sitting in the Parliament. 

A true democracy limits the power of these representatives and they have to strictly follow the constitution which again cannot be altered or amended except through right procedural process.

This is, I feel, the merit of democracy, where every effort is made to prevent the accumulation of power in the hands of any particular individual. 

This leads us to the fact that the foremost demand of democracy is free and fair election. Every voter not only has access to the voting machine but secrecy of his vote has to be strictly maintained. Liberty, equality, fraternity are the three pillars of a good democracy and in a proper democratic situation it must be followed religiously. 

Unless these principles are sincerely maintained, how will people who are an integral part of democracy, get assurance of safety, security as well as courage to express their views/ problems freely? Here comes the win of democracy over dictatorship where people do not have freedom of speech. 

The role of unbiased press and then freedom of expression are urgent necessities so that they can reach a large number of people’s opinion to the government to judge the pros and cons of their decisions. The Parliament proceedings should be open to the public so that they can see how their elected representatives are behaving. In a true democracy, the people have the power of rejecting their representatives and that is their best safeguard.

But, I am sure you will all agree with me that no electoral system can be fool-proof and perfect democracy can be found in the utopia of poets and dreamers. We have to be satisfied with the nearest maintenance of the sanctity of democracy. Democracy is an evolutionary process. So, it is not wrong on our part to expect the scope for modification and change in the light of experience. 

In conclusion, I request all of you to keep your hopes and expectations alive not only to have a true democracy in our country but to maintain its merits also. I thank our Cultural Forum team for giving me the opportunity to speak in front of an august audience. Thank you for your patient hearing!