Vice President Hamid Ansari on Wednesday said despite having societal differences, which at times leads to religious violence also, secularism remains the basic character of Indian Constitution and a great majority of Indians remain committed to a just society.
The Vice Presiden made this statement in response to a question by a student of Yerevan State University who wanted to know why despite being called secular India has oft erupting episodes of religious violence.
“Secularism and violence both are facts. But our commitment is more for secularism even though we have societal differences which leads people to use the self licence for violence. But secularism is one of the basic character of Constitution of India. And great majority are committed to that. People of India are committed to a just society,” Ansari said.
The VP also condemned the killing of innocents during the Genocide in Armenia by the Ottoman Empire of Turkey between 1915 to 1923. “Any killing of a human being by a fellow human being can only generate only one response…There cannot be two views on the killing of innocent people. We see a lot of killing taking place in our neighbourhood. What is bad, is bad,” Ansari said in response to a question by a student why India has not officially recognised the Armenian Genocide. So far 29 countries have recognized the Genocide.
The Vice President was given an Honorary Doctorate degree at the Yerevan University after he addressed the students of the institute.
Stressing on the need for quality education, he said the countries that have invested in educating their populations, built strong consumer economies, and have democratic institutions that can deal with social change will benefit. He added that in the coming days some of the newer technologies that would impact on human progress relate to energy, cyber technology, robotics, artificial intelligence, quantum mechanics, gene-editing and space exploration, all of these have geopolitical implications in the future.
The VP said that the cyber technology has overwhelmed us and its impact on every level of human organization is evident. “It is not threatening in itself but most societies are already beginning to cope with threats emanating from it. The very benefits of its use in social, financial, industrial and military sectors have, as one strategic thinker has observed, revolutionized vulnerabilities…Technology and its applications is one aspect of the matter; the human response to it is another. This galloping new world has already demonstrated that traditional frontiers of thought and action are no longer sacrosanct. At the same time, it is evident that the impact of new techniques and technologies would not be uniform in all societies since they are at different levels of development and do not have equal capacities of absorption,” Ansari said.