The Vice President Jagdeep Dhankhar asserted that India does not need any sermons from anyone on this planet on the point of equality as India has always believed in it. Asking the countries to look within, he highlighted that “some countries are yet to have a woman president, while India had a woman Prime Minister before even the United Kingdom. Cautioning against the false narrative and misinformation being set afloat about the Citizenship Amendment Act, Dhanhkar underlined that CAA neither seeks to deprive any Indian citizen of his or her citizenship, nor does it exclude anyone from applying for Indian citizenship as before. The Vice President was addressing the 2023 batch IAS officer trainees at the conclusion of phase-I of their professional course at Lal Bahadur Shastri National Academy of Administration in Mussoorie on Friday.

Mentioning that CAA facilitates acquisition of Indian citizenship for minorities in the neighbouring countries, the VP asked “How can this reprieve, healing touch to those persecuted in our neighbourhood on account of their religious commitment be discriminatory?”

Noting that CAA applies to those who arrived in India on or before December 31, 2014, he emphasised that it is not an invitation to influx. “We have to neutralise these narratives. These emanate not out of ignorance, but out of a strategy to run down our nation,” he cautioned.

Addressing the IAS officer trainees, he called upon the young minds to rebuff such “strategised orchestration of factually untenable anti-national narratives aimed at tainting and tarnishing our glorified and robust constitutional bodies.”

Stating that governance has taken a turn for the better in recent years, Dhankhar said that privileged pedigree is now sulking in the bylanes. “Democratic values and essence is deepening as equality before law is being enforced in an exemplary manner and corruption is no longer a trading commodity. Earlier this was the only mechanism to passage to a contract, recruitment, opportunity,” he added.

Stating that some privileged pedigree earlier thought that they were immune to legal process and law cannot reach them, he questioned, “How can someone in a democratic country like ours be more equal than others?” This equality before the law that had eluded the nation for long and corruption that was running into the veins of administration like blood are now matters of the past, he told the young officers while recognising the contributions of the civil servants to this revolution.

Appreciating the corridors of power have been sanitised of corrupt elements who extra legally leveraged decision making, the Vice President noted that the country has been pulled out of despondency.  India has become a land of hope and possibility. Stating that there is upbeat mood all over the nation, he asserted that “India is no longer a nation with a potential or a sleeping giant. It is on the move.”

“The greatest challenge to our democratic polity is emanating from those who have long been part of dispensation, have held positions of authority, had the occasion to contribute to the development of the nation and once out of authority or power have poor appetite for growth trajectory of the nation. They need some rebuff from young minds,” he said.

The Vice President told the IAS probationers that people look up to them as role models. “You have to exemplify by actions that are worth emulating, inspiring and motivating young minds and eliciting admiration of the elders in any capacity,” he added.