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Mr. Gandhi presenting Memento of theConference to Hon’ble Mr. H.R.Bhardwaj, Union Minister for Law andJustice, Government of Indiaears. God has not discriminated between man and man, He creates them alike and Heordained that you should spread knowledge. But, we are not spreading the knowledge;we are not saying the truth, we are not speaking the truth. That is why all this fallacies inthe world order. The whole philosophy of India which Vivekanand propagated all overthe world, are two sentences ‘Utthishthitah Jagratah’. Oh mankind, awake and arise.What is awakening and what is arise? All the movements of freedom which India hassupported, whether it is in African continent or elsewhere. It is based on the principlethat man cannot be a slave of another and that is why U.N. Charter says. All are bornequal, you may be big nation, you may be a small nation but as a nation you are all equal.There is no big or small in the eyes of God, He treats them all equal. If the God has notcreated everybody equal He will create many-many suns. There is only one sun whichshines over the globe and God has put this sun in such orbit that it gives warmth to the entire humanity, it does notdiscriminate. So, that is the philosophy in which India has believed since ancient times and our Founding Fathers were greatvisionaries, again I am saying, they were influenced by the scriptures of India and I tell you not only the Indian scriptures isnot one, we have finest of Vedas, we have finest of Islam. It is Islam which brought equality to India. It is Article 14 directlyderived from Islam, equality no duality. Then these all compassions, tolerance they are all from the precepts of Jesus Christ.We have the finest of Christianity; we have the finest of Buddhism, we have finest of Jainism and that is why this is a greatcivilization. It is here Rabindra Nath Tagore said, ‘We do not want to go by the dry reasons or explanations, we will receiveeverybody with warmth because the Vedas says that the knowledge should be welcomed from all directions’.‘Tanobhadra’ all these principals take us to one message tell us only one message peace, tranquility, friendship, unity,cooperation, tolerance and compassion. Note to know that there are no two opinions about these virtues and essentiallythese virtues form the core of all religions, all scriptures. It is we when we distort religion, religion is very powerful weapon,it can be very-very purifying your soul, but if you distort religion it will be the most dangerous weapon for mankind.Therefore, what we say is treat all equal, treat everybody with compassion because God is tolerant and compassionate sowe should follow the example of God who is the creator of all of us.Now, turning to the role of judges, everybody knows that the judges and the lawyers all over the world are united. Why arethey united? Because we are not diplomats, distortionists. You can see in the most difficult time the Judges and Lawyersspeak the language of law. They do not know any other language, be it in any part of the world. They always say what theirconscience and conviction tell them. So, they are the purest form of mankind and that is why they have courage, they havecommitment to truth and justice is truth and quest of all the judges is truth; discovering the truth. Therefore, they are thepersons who can bring peace. But they are very small in number, they don’t have weapons. Their only weapon is what theyexhort to mankind. But I am very happy that in all constitutional societies, Judiciary has been given a very important role, arole of arbiter and our Founding Fathers have given such a powerful weapon in the hands of judiciary in India. They canannul any Act of Parliament even the constitutional amendments. They can set aside any order of the executive, be it be thePrime Minister or a Minister. They can look into the actions of all organs of the state and correct them wherever thecorrections are necessary. They have huge responsibility and I think so that on these principles there is unanimity and worldconsensus that the Lawyers and the judges must be independent. They should not be dependent on any part of state, anyorgan of the state and when you give this responsibility to judges I think the world is safe in their hands. I can only say thatif peace will ever come, it will come through the mouths of judges or nowhere, no ministers, no diplomats. I was a memberof an organization a long time back, it was an American organization ‘World Peace through Law Center’. We participatedin several conferences and thereafter I think it faded away, the organization doesn’t exist. I think this movement of MrGandhi is far stronger than any other organization that I have attended so far.Initially your voice may not be heard by Dr. Kofi Annan or any other diplomat who do not act properly at right time. Weshould not discriminate between the nations and nations. If there is a poor nation, if there is week nation-financially oreconomically, so they should not be treated as the second grade nation. All nations are represented by their people andtherefore all the nations are entitled to equality and equal treatment of United Nations. Unfortunately this is not happening.--9--