Three days ago, I went to Vidarbha. There, I met a young woman who has three sons. Sasikala, a landless labourer, lives on Rs 60 a day. Her husband who goes to work in a field nearby earns Rs 90 a day and with their total earnings, they have put their three children in a private school. The eldest son dreams of becoming a collector, the middle son dreams of becoming an engineer and the younger son wants to do a private job. When I asked Sasikala as to whether she thinks that her children will be successful, she looked at me and said “Absolutely”. As I was walking out of the house, I noticed that there was no electricity. I told the children that when I was younger, I would study in the evening and asked them how they studied.

The children pointed to a little lamp. “We study using that lamp.” This problem of energy security reflects itself everyday with all of us; it reflects itself among the poor, like in the house of Sasikala; it reflects itself with industry; and it reflects among all Indians.

I would take you to the house of another young woman, Kalawati, who has nine children. Kalawati’s husband committed suicide because he was dependent on only one crop, the cotton crop.

When I asked her how she resolves her problems, she said that instead of sowing one crop, she now sows three. She also told me, most importantly, that she has dug a little pond, which she fills with water and uses as an insurance policy when it does not rain.

At the very least, nuclear energy is going to act like Mrs Kala’s pond and it is going to act as an insurance policy for this country in times of need. At its maximum, nuclear energy is going to act like her main crop.

The problem is that the way our nuclear industry is positioned today, it is going to do neither.

I am proud that our Prime Minister Shri Manmohan Singhji has recognised both the problem and a potential solution. But it would be unfair of me not to accept that Shri Vajpayee also saw the problem and also, in his time, worked on the solution.

We must start to think like a big and powerful country. Instead of worrying about how the world will impact us, we must start worrying about how we will impact the world.

We must never, ever let fear be our guide. We must never take decisions based on the fear of what is going to happen if we act.

We are a country of a billion people; 70 per cent of us are young. This country is brimming with confidence and self-belief. We must never forget when we take decisions as leaders that we have to believe in our people.