Sankar Halder’s Speech on the Occasion of “Sankalpa Diwas” 2023

Mr. Shankar Halder,in his speech on the occasion of “Sankalp Divas” 2023, raised the concern of some distinguished guests, that there is restlessness among Mukti volunteers due to criticism of Mukti. Mr. Halder said that criticism is a sign of a healthy democratic process and is necessary for progress, but constructive discussions should be recommended.

He said that when organization moves forward following a certain ideal, then there are some people in that organization who cannot fully accept the ideals of the organization, and Mukti is not above this situation. Many members associated with Mukti have not yet fully grasped the ideology of Mukti. But Mukti doesn’t believe in rejecting people with opposing views. Mukti believes that Mukti should become a trustworthy platform for all to come and engage in the welfare of people, society and the environment by understanding the idea of real social service and the ideals of Mukti. It is not the failure of those people who have not yet reached this stage but the failure is of ours. We who are spiritually connected with Mukti may not have been able to present our ideals more transparently due to lack of proper efforts and processes among us. So we have to be more conscious and zealous so that we can give a clear idea about the ideal of Mukti to those who have not yet imbibed the ideals.

To highlight the ideals of Mukti, he said Mukti is not an anti-political organization. The enemy of our organization is not any individual or group but our enemies are – illiteracy, negative infrastructure of society created in the name of development of civilization, attitude of environmental pollution in the name of development, selfishness. Different people around the world are fighting these problems in different ways. We all need to come together to find lasting solutions to these problems, so to keep this collective process going we need to communicate our work methods and goals to the rest of us and improve the quality of work through constructive criticism. Our weapons in moving forward in this work will be love and well-established democracy. Our goal will be to develop ourselves and others through love rather than fighting each other.

Mr. Halder regretted that as the organization’s scope of work increased, he could not keep regular contact with many people associated with Mukti. So the thoughts, ideals and objectives of each work or project of Mukti do not reach the grass root levels on time. He requested all Mukti Sathi present on “Sankalpa Diwas” to understand the significance of his speech. With this, he requested everyone, that if anyone has any question or lack of understanding about the work of Mukti or ideological issues, they should endeavor to get a clear understanding through direct questions to the experienced people associated with Mukti. Mr. Halder assured all present that the experienced members of Mukti will always cooperate in such a situation.

At the end of the speech Mr. Halder humbly mentioned that today Mukti is making a novel history in the development of Purba Sridharpur. People involved in global development are doing social science research on development trends here. The research done for the sake of development is 60%-65% successful. Among them, one of the most successful research works is the cultivation of delicious salt tolerant rice in the saline river embankment, where not even a single blade of grass used to grow. He has chosen his native land, his village as the field of this development. Analyzing the trend of development, it is generally observed that people involved in development work have different places of birth and place of work. Because if there is a problem in development efforts centered on one’s own land and one’s own area, people usually refrain from such initiatives for the fear of its impact on personal life, but according to Mr. Halder there are many opportunities for research in the field of development work with the cooperation of people known in one’s area and with this, it is possible to develop solutions that can be replicated elsewhere in a more well-planned way by learning from earlier mistakes. This will create a much less flawed model of development. Sankar said that another reason for choosing his native village for starting his development work was his belief that the initiative of service should first of all start from one’s family, one’s own house.

At the end of the speech, he requested the villagers of Purba Sridharpur to follow the resolutions taken on “Sankalpa Divas” through various initiatives throughout the year.