Prime Minister Manmohan Singhji,
My fellow Members of arliament,
Friends,
I extend a very warm welcome to you all.
Thank you for the honour you have done me by electing me Chairperson of the Congress Parliamentary Party. It will be my constant endeavour to justify the confidence you have placed in me.
A long and difficult election has come to an end, with a result that is both exhilarating and sobering. We have received a generous mandate, but one that comes with onerous responsibilities. We have won an election but also undertaken a serious obligation. We have awakened new hopes, and it is now our task to respond to the very aspirations that have brought us this day to this Hall in these numbers.
As I stand before you, at the spot where so many of our nation's architects and builders have stood, I feel both humbled and inspired. Our party's legacy is a glorious and historic tradition of dedication and sacrifice. We are inheritors in a long line of freedom fighters, of nation-builders and men and women of public service. We are the present-day custodians of their ideology and their values. We must live up to this heritage. I pay homage to them, and especially to those who most influenced and guided me, Indiraji and Rajivji. Their vision, strength and devotion continue to inspire so many of us.
Friends, we are deeply grateful to the people of our country for the trust they have placed in us. This is a tribute to our party's ideology, our government's polices and programmes and the hard work put in by lakhs of ordinary Congressmen and women throughout the country.
We were able to go out and convince the people that their future is secure in the hands of a party and government that is committed to secularism, and works for development, equality and inclusiveness. We have earned their support and we must keep their trust. We must never forget that we are here first and foremost in their service.
I congratulate all those who have won their elections as Members of the 15th Lok Sabha. It is heartening to see new, especially younger faces among you. We are of course disappointed that some of our colleagues were not as fortunate. They should not lose heart. The party is much more than membership of Parliament or the legislatures. There is important work to be done by one and all. I have no doubt that if this work is taken well and truly in hand, we will emerge even stronger in the future.
But we will succeed in this only if we meet the great expectations that this election has aroused. We have seen that notions such as anti-incumbency, and pulls and pressures from caste or region, can be overcome by dedication and real work.
This is what now awaits us. As parliamentarians, we have a call to strengthen our links and dialogue with those whom we serve. The people must feel our presence, sense our intentions and bear witness to our concern for them. As party members, whether occupying government office or not, whether having a position in the organization or not, we have a duty to remain disciplined and united, putting party before self. As individuals, we have an obligation to project values of integrity and character.
After many years of fractious politics, we should work together with Parliamentary representatives of all parties towards restoring the decorum of political discourse and raising Parliament once again to a pre-eminent forum of dignified debate and decision-making. We have an opportunity to rebuild the eroded faith in some of our political and public institutions, indeed in us politicians as well.
The people's verdict tells us that above all else they crave honest and capable governance and decency in public life. We must not disappoint them.
Five years ago, under the leadership of Dr Manmohan Singh we took our first steps on the path of renewal, to restore secularism and our core values, to improve the lives of our millions, especially the disadvantaged, to rebuild the economy, and to secure our place in the world. We will continue innovatively on this path, with greater vigour and confidence. I look forward to working together with you to realize these goals, and wish you a successful and productive tenure in the Lok Sabha.
Friends, as per provision of Clause 5B of the Constitution of the Congress Parliamentary Party, I name Dr. Manmohan Singh as the Prime Minister and urge you to support this by acclamation. His record of the past five years speaks for itself and we look forward to his leadership in the coming years. His dignified, determined and effective leadership of the government has been an inspiration for us all and has received overwhelming approval from the people of our country. Let us all congratulate him and wish him well.
