Mumbai, July 06: President A P J Abdul Kalam today said that religions in India were like islands which need to be connected with love and compassion. "All religions are like beautiful gardens.. But they are like islands and need to be connected with love and compassion for a prosperous India," he said while inaugurating the "Times Foundation" and its I-I (Individual to Infinity) Academy.

Kalam said in his first year in office he had visited 22 states and met nearly 200,000 students and found that the country's younger populace want a safe, prosperous and strong India.

Recounting his recent visit to Tawang in Arunachal Pradesh, located at 3,000 meters altitude, the President said that the place was serene and happiness prevailed everywhere.
Kalam said when he asked the chief monk of a Buddhist monastry about the cause behind the all pervasive happiness he replied that "Remove I and me. Then ego will vanish and hate will diminish and once hate diminishes then violence in mind and body disappears and peace will set in."


The President said that a blueprint for a prosperous, strong and developed India has been drafted with an all-round emphasis on agriculture, education, infrastructure, food and self sufficiency in critical technology by 2020.

Unless villages are developed, states cannot prosper without which the country cannot developed. Kalam said that media has to play a leading role in fulfilling the dream of a prosperous India by 2020.

Bureau Report