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Overview of Speech given by Prof. Trilochan Sastry The speech of Prof. Sastry was about the organizations he founded in the pursuit of true

democracy and empowerment of the farmers. Moreover this motivational speech also teaches

us some lessons of lifetime.

1 ASSOCIATION FOR DEMOCRATIC REFORMS Association for Democratic Reforms was formed in 1999 and the organization won several PIL in

the objective to achieve true democracy.

1.1 FULL DISCLOSURE OF MLA/MP In May 2002 and March 2003, ADR won two milestone

judgments on disclosure of candidate's criminal and

financial records from the Supreme Court. Since then,

1200 NGOs from all over the country are supporting

ADR and ADR in partnership with its partners has

organized Citizen Election Watch for all major

elections [ Source: ADR India website]

The have won some others significant judgment as

like cancellation of candidature in case of convicted

and complete all the criminal cases against the MPs

within one year.

2 COOPERATIVE DEVELOPMENT FOUNDATION AND CENTER FOR

COLLECTIVE DEVELOPMENT Even today the largest sector of our economy in terms of employment and output is agriculture

and may be it will come down in future but will play a significant role for next sixty seventy years.

However, this sector is always in crisis. Now, over the time the land holding is coming down and

the poverty, suicides are increasing. Prof. Sastry saw the success story of dairy sector in

Cooperative model pioneered by Dr. Kurien. However, the main distress exists outside of the dairy

sector. 70% of Indian agricultural land suffered from insufficient and irregular rainfall. Moreover,

those lands are not able produce crops more than once. Prof. Sastry learned from the mistakes of

Dr. Kurian in agricultural sector and stated this cooperative organization which is governed by two

principle. The first one is, they are not doing charity; they are just proving support and platforms to

the farmer. A person will be efficient when his own money is in stake. The second one is let the

farmer decide what is good for him. Both the way will actually lead to a holistic empowerment of

the farmers. It is a value based organization, and its approach is based on the premise that work

and responsibility gives dignity to the poor, whereas charity demeans.

In our country, everything needs a

reform. We started with political

reform. Because they are the people in

some sense answerable to us because we

are voting for them. So we started with

the political system

Saikat Mondal

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3 THE WAY OF GANDHI Mahatma Gandhi was a social and political genius. The first lesson he learnt after coming back to

India at the age of 46 was not to express opinion in each and every issue. Gandhi travelled for

one year on foot to the villages of India to know the people of his country. And this makes Gandhi

as a successful leader whereas others failed to motivate people. Gandhi was successful to several

mass movement only because he knew his people better than anyone else. And this argument is

the genesis of the idea of nationwide survey for collective opinion. The idea is to form a collective

opinion about our country so that the true democracy can be achieved. Why every time experts

will decide what is good and what is bad for our country. So the member of this organizations are

going to the villages and stared asking people what they need. Right now, they are working for

fourteen months and completed survey for hundreds of villages.

4 THE MOST SUSTAINABLE SOCIAL ORGANIZATIONS If we can observe the history of social organizations, the most sustainable form of a social

organizations are non-profit social organizations. For example, the universities like Oxford and

Harvard have withstand the test of time for centuries, the religious organizations are here for more

than thousands of years; whereas the maximum lifespan of a profit making organization is not more

than one hundred to one hundred fifty years. The argument presented was that the society keeps

those organizations alive. If the organizations are doing well for society, then only the society will

make sure the sustainability of the organization generations after generations.

5 Key Takeaways

5.1 LEARN FROM YOUR MISTAKES If you are trying to learn how to ride a bicycle, you have to fall down quite a few times. If you are

doing business, you have to make few mistakes. The lesson you learn from the mistakes is what

stays with you; not what you learn in classrooms.

5.2 TREAT EVERYONE WITH DIGNITY Most importantly, in any business, treat everyone including children with respect and dignity. You

can see the magic will happen if you treat everyone with respect because nobody has done that.

5.3 IDEALISTIC VIEWPOINT Idealistic viewpoint is the prime driving force for a social organizations in the question of

sustainably. If you want to do good for people, people will only believe in you if you are an

idealistic person.

The moment you are expressing your opinion, you are passing a

judgment without knowing the fact.