In his lengthy address, the Vice-President touched upon secularism, nationalism and tolerance in the context of development across the country
In what was his last speech, outgoing Vice-President said that tolerance is a pragmatic formula for the functioning of society without conflict between different religions and political ideologies, among others. Ansari was speaking on Sunday at the 25th annual convocation of the National Law School of India University, Bengaluru.
"Tolerance alone is not a strong enough foundation for building an inclusive and pluralistic society and it must be coupled with "understanding and acceptance". In this regard, he recalled Swami Vivekananda's words, "We must not only tolerate other religions, but positively embrace them, as truth is the basis of all religions."
In his lengthy address, the Vice-President touched upon secularism, nationalism and tolerance in the context of development across the country. Speaking on nationalism, Ansari said that more recently, an alternate viewpoint of 'purifying exclusivism' has tended to intrude into and take over the political and cultural landscape. "One manifestation of it is 'an increasingly fragile national ego' that threatens to rule out any dissent, however innocent. Hyper-nationalism and the closing of the mind is also 'a manifestation of insecurity about one's place in the world," he said.
He also said that while ensuring that external and domestic security is an essential duty of the state, there seems to be a trend towards sanctification of military might overlooking former US President George Washington's caution about overgrown military establishments which, under any form of government, are inauspicious to liberty.
On tolerance and acceptance of all people, Ansari said it was an essential national virtue to promote harmony transcending sectional diversities. "The urgency of giving this a practical shape at national, state and local levels through various suggestions in the public domain is highlighted by enhanced apprehensions of insecurity among segments of our citizen body, particularly Dalits, Muslims and Christians."
With agency inputs
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