Sudha Murty's Maiden Speech In Rajya Sabha And Impression She Makes (image: screen grab from x.com/Ravisutanjani)
Author and philanthropist Sudha Murty made her stipulated time valuable in her maiden speech as Rajya Sabha MP in the Parliament. President Droupadi Murmu nominated Sudha Murty to the Upper House on the eve of International Women’s Day.
“I am not a politician”, she said at the beginning and expressed gratitude for President’s nomination.
During a discussion on the motion of thanks on the President’s address, she brought two pertinent issues to the focus of the house. In her speech, she requested for a government-sponsored vaccination programme to battle cervical cancer and stressed for the advancement of tourism in the country.
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By highlighting the importance of health for women, Murty brought the topic of cervical cancer to everyone’s attention.
“There is a vaccination which is given to girls, between the age of nine and 14, known as a cervical vaccination. If the girls take that, it (cancer) can be avoided … we should promote vaccination for the benefit of our girls because prevention is better than cure,” Sudha Murty said.
Referring her father, who was a medical practitioner, Rajya Sabha MP told that when a mother dies, it is counted as one death in the hospital, but for the family, a mother is lost forever.
She reminds the House about the massive vaccination programme conducted by the government during the Covid period, so it may not be very difficult to undertake cervical vaccination drive to girls, she observes.
Continuing further, Murty said that the cervical vaccination has been developed in the West and it is being used for the past 20 years.
“It worked very well. It is not expensive. Today it is ₹1,400 for people like me who are in the field. If the government intervenes and negotiates…you can bring it to ₹700-800. We have such a large population. It will be beneficial for our girls in future,” she added.
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Aside from women’s health, Murty also proposed for the promotion of domestic tourism. She pointed that there are 57 domestic tourist sites in the country which should be nominated as World Heritage Sites. It includes Shivaji forts in Maharashtra, Bahubali statue at Shravanabela Gola in Karnataka, Mughal Gardens in Kashmir, Lothal in Gujarat, temples in Srirangam, and old monuments of Sarnath. She also recollected her research spent in learning Indian culture, temple and monuments.
“In India, we have 42 World Heritage sites but 57 are pending … we should bother about those 57 sites,” Rajya Sabha MP said.
We have diamond in our hands, but we search for broken glass pieces, she added.
She also pointed that the old Parliament Building design prototyping has been done from the thousands-year-old Chausath Yogini temple at Mitawali in Madhya Pradesh.
Sudha Murty is married to Infosys co-founder, Narayana Murty and Rishi Sunak, the Prime Minister of the UK and leader of the Conservative Party, is her son-in-law.
Sudha Murty is the former chairperson of the Infosys Foundation and a member of the public health care initiatives of the Gates Foundation. She has also served as an educator. Murty is a recipient of many honours including, Padma Shri, India’s fourth-highest civilian award in 2006, and Padma Bhushan, India’s third-highest civilian award in 2023.
