Speakers at a discussion on the status of the nation after 60 years of Independence felt the need for a comprehensive road map to place the country on the path of development and prosperity.

Panelists at the discussion on “the state of the nation” organised by the Bangalore International Centre in Bangalore on Wednesday, also felt the need for good leadership and issue specific strategies to achieve the goal.

Former Chief Justice of India M N Venkatachalaiah set the tone for the discussion by pointing out that progress can be achieved through the route of health and education for all.

Emphasising the fact that human rights and development go hand in hand, Justice Venkatachalaiah identified public health, education for the girl child and poverty as the most critical developmental issues in the Indian context.

He rued that criminal justice, the backbone to safeguard human rights, was in disarray and the response mechanism to human rights violations had collapsed due to bureaucratic indifference and corruption.

Legislative Council Chairman B K Chandrashekar said new initiatives and a pre-school policy were the need of the hour to ensure that children do not feel alienated in schools. There was a need to take measures to reduce the school drop of rate, especially of girls and socially backward sections. Besides improving the infrastructure in schools, remedial teaching inputs were required to address the needs of weaker students. Textbooks need to be more student-friendly and should help them to think rather than merely providing information.

Textbook preparation can also be centralised to ensure that local inputs are provided to students of different regions.

Prof RLM Patil, former head of political science department, Bangalore University decried the present system of individuals ruling political parties. “There are 700 political parties registered with the Election Commission. What is the ideologies of these parties. Where will they lead the country to ?”, he asked.