Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose's speech inspired me to draft mine: Pranab Mukherjee

President Pranab Mukherjee on Sunday said Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose's 1938 speech as Congress President had inspired him to draft his own acceptance speech on becoming the head of state. "When I drafted my acceptance speech on being elected as the President of the Republic - and that is one speech which I had to draft myself.. what struck me first.. please

let me go through the address of Subhash Chandra Bose as Congress President. And there I got the inspiration," Pranab said at a function to commemorate Netaji's 116th birth anniversary.

Pranab credited several important features of our constitutional system as part of Bose's vision. He said the Directive Principles of State Policy, which are now a part of our Constitution and the concept of Five-Year plans, were a part of the freedom fighter's vision for governance of India after Independence. "Subhash Chandra Bose gave the clarion call and laid the basic foundation about the responsibilities and duties of independent India 10 years before the actual liberation. The concept of planning, the directive principles of the state,

planned economic development.." he said.