2015-01-26 15:54:00

Indian president says religion cannot be made cause of conflict


Asserting that religion cannot be made a cause of conflict, Indian President Pranab Mukherjee on Sunday said “tolerance” and promotion of goodwill between diverse communities needs to be preserved with “utmost care and vigilance”.  In a televised Republic Day address to the nation on the eve of 66th Republic Day, the President quoted Mahatma Gandhi saying, “Religion is a force for unity” and added, “we cannot make it a cause of conflict” as wisdom of India always teaches “unity is strength, dominance is weakness.”  He said the Constitution is the holy book of democracy and a “lodestar” for the socio-economic transformation of an India whose civilization has celebrated pluralism, advocated tolerance and promoted goodwill between diverse communities.  “These values, however, need to be preserved with utmost care and vigilance,” he said.  The comments of the President came at a time when some right wing parties have been sparking one controversy after another by raising issues like ‘ghar wapsi’ (or forced re-conversion to Himduism), eulogizing Nathuram Godse who killed Mahatma Gandi, pressing for having 10 kids for increasing Hindu population and some ministers making inappropriate comments about minorities.

Among other issues, President Mukherjee also criticized the nation’s parliamentary dysfunction, the overuse of decrees to govern and rampant violence against women.  Mukherjee said the opposition should debate laws responsibly rather ‎than disrupting the houses of parliament, and warned Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government ‎against governing by decree, saying "enacting laws without discussion impacts the law-making role of ‎the parliament” and breaches the people’s trust in it.  He was referring to 10 "ordinances" issued by ‎Modi, including ones to raise the foreign investment limit in insurance, auction coal mines and ease land ‎acquisitions.  Mukherjee said there can "no governance without a functioning legislature."  In his speech, Mukherjee expressed ‎anger that women are "fearful even in their own homes" because of widespread rape, murder, ‎harassment on the roads, kidnapping and dowry deaths.‎

The Indian president’s message coincided with the arrival of US president Barack Obama on a 3-day visit which ‎aims to cement ties between the world's two largest democracies.  Obama became the first U.S. president to ‎be the chief guest at the annual Republic Day parade on Monday.  








All the contents on this site are copyrighted ©.