Excelsior Correspondent/PTI
JAMMU/NEW DELHI, Jan 25: President Pranab Mukherjee today voiced deep concern over repeated ceasefire violations along the Line of Control (LoC) and called for “integrated response” through incisive diplomacy and impregnable security mechanisms to the terrorist attacks.
In his address to the nation on the eve of 66th Republic Day, Mukherjee said the world must join hands in fighting the menace of terrorism.
“The multi-nation conflict has converted boundaries into bloodlines and terrorism into an industry of evil. Terrorism and violence are seeping across our borders. While peace, non-violence and good neighbourly intentions should remain the fundamentals of our foreign policy, we cannot afford to be complacent about adversaries, who will stop at nothing to disrupt our progress towards prosperous and equitable India,” the President said.
Maintaining that India has strength, confidence and determination to defeat architects of this war against the people of India, Mukherjee said the repeated violations of the ceasefire along the LoC and terrorist act must be given an integrated response.
Later, during his meeting with US President Barrack Obama, Mukherjee said India and US should fight terrorism together as no country is safe from the menace.
The law-enforcement agencies of both the countries should develop more trust and mutual cooperation for fighting the menace of terrorism more strongly, he said.
Mukherjee said the world must adopt zero tolerance to terrorism.
“Allowing safe haven in any country is same as allowing all countries become potential targets of terrorism,” he said.
Pranab Mukerjee deplored the “competition in hysteria” and said religion cannot be made a cause of conflict.
Asserting that Constitution is the holy book of democracy, he said Indian civilisation had always celebrated pluralism, advocated tolerance and promoted good will between diverse communities.
“These values, however, need to be preserved with utmost care and vigilance. The freedom inherent in democracy sometimes generates an unhappy by-product when political discourse becomes a competition in hysteria that is abhorrent to our traditional ethos.
“The violence of the tongue, cuts and wounds people’s hearts. Religion, said Gandhiji, is a force for unity; we cannot make it a cause of conflict,” Mukherjee said.
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.
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’, eulogising Nathuram Godse, pressing for having 10 kids for increasing Hindu population and some ministers making inappropriate comments about minorities.
On the issue of India being termed as a “soft power”, he said, “the most powerful example of India’s soft power, in an international environment where so many countries are sinking into the morass of theocratic violence, lies in our definition of the relationship between faith and polity.
“We have always reposed our trust in faith-equality where every faith is equal before the law and every culture blends into another to create a positive dynamic,” the President said.
On the economic issue, the President said 2015 is a year of hope and key economic indicators provide for “much optimism”.
He said five per cent plus growth rates each in the first two quarter of the current fiscal is “healthy sign for an early reversion to the high growth trajectory of 7-8 per cent.
Highlighting Gandhi’s vision, Mukherjee said the call for ‘Purna Swaraj’ was given under his leadership at Congress conclave in January 26, 1929. He said Gandhi started celebrating January 26, 1930 as Independence Day.
“From then on, the Nation took a pledge on this day every year to carry on the freedom struggle till we attained it,” Mukherjee said.
The President said the framework of a Constitution, which was charted in 1950, two years after his martyrdom, that has made India a role model for today’s world, was constructed out of Gandhi’s philosophy.
He said Constitution’s essence lay in four principles: democracy; freedom of faith; gender equality; and an economic upsurge for those trapped in the curse of dire poverty which were made Constitutional obligations.
The country’s resolve to eliminate poverty through inclusive development has to be a step in the direction of Gandhi talisman for the country’s rulers which said whenever you are in doubt…Recall the face of the poorest and the weakest man whom you may have seen and ask yourself…Will it lead to swaraj for the hungry and spiritually starving millions?, he said.
The President said we must strive for the highest quality in our educational institutions so that we can take our place, within a visible future, among the knowledge leaders of the 21st century.
He also wanted that special stress be laid on the culture of books and reading, which takes knowledge beyond the classroom and frees imagination from stress of the immediate and the utilitarian.
“We must be a creative people, nourished by innumerable, interlinked rivers of ideas,” he said.
The youth must lead the way to mastery of technology and communication in a universe where the cloud has become a library without frontiers, and vast opportunity awaits within the computer in your palm.
“The 21st century is within India’s grasp.” the President said.
After cautioning the Government against taking the ordinance route, Mukherjee did some plain speaking, saying enacting laws without discussions “breaches the trust” reposed by people and is not good for democracy.
Mukherjee spoke about the importance of legislature and said that after three decades, people have voted a single party to majority for having a stable Government.
“The voter has played her part; it is now up to those who have been elected to honour this trust. It was a vote for clean, efficient, effective, gender-sensitive, transparent, accountable and citizen-friendly governance,” he said.
Dwelling upon the role of legislature, the President said it is a “platform where progressive legislations using civilised dialogue” which must create delivery mechanism for realizing the aspirations of the people and also reconciling the differences among all the stakeholders before enacting laws.
“Enacting laws without discussion impacts the law-making role of the Parliament. It breaches the trust reposed in it by the people. This is neither good for the democracy nor for the policies relating to those laws,” he said.
Mukherjee had earlier stated that ordinances are meant for specific purposes, that is “to meet an extraordinary situation under extraordinary circumstances”.
The remarks had come against the backdrop of the Modi Government having issued nine ordinances including those for raising the FDI limit in the insurance sector and e-auctioning of coal mines.
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