Underlining the status of India before the world as the largest democracy Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan called on people to give equal preference to both rights as well as duties available under the Constitution.
She was addressing the gathering on the concluding ceremony of four-day ‘Lok Manthan’, the idea exchange programme to discuss the ‘idea of India’ and issues concerning contemporary socio-cultural and religious situation prevailing in the country on Sunday.
“India is the biggest democratic country of the world and everyone must keep the service of the nation in mind otherwise the goal behind democracy would fail. All residents should follow their rights as well as duties with a sense of commitment to the nation. Democracy is the rule of the people, by the people and for the people, which means everyone is duty bound to do something for the nation,” said Sumitra Mahajan.
The Speaker referred to colonial past of India which she said was due to negligence of the citizens towards their duties. “Governments are bound to face criticism in democracy but that should be for bringing positive change into society. As a country what we need at present is social harmony which would come through self-consciousness and self-examination. We have to evaluate where we have reached after 70 years of independence,” said Mahajan.
Also present there was Chief Minister Raghubar Das who blamed previous Government at Center for having discriminatory attitude towards a set of ideologies. “Those who ruled the country for the longest period of time discriminated against several great personalities. Those who sacrificed for the nation should have been given the place they deserved but that was not the case,” said the CM naming Sardar Patel, Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose, Bhagat Singh, Rajguru along with Birsa Munda and other revolutionaries from Jharkhand.
The CM blamed the Congress regimes for denying Bharat Ratna award to Baba Saheb Ambedkar and Atal Bihari Vajpayee and also rapped Leftwing historians and ideologues for weakening the sense of nationalism in the country at present. “The Lok Manthan at this juncture becomes very relevant which would make available fresh and nationalistic ideas before the people. We are a country of many religious beliefs and respect all the religions. Our culture has also been accommodative with the idea of ‘vashudhaiva kutumbkam’,” said the CM.
He on the occasion outlined the cultural and natural richness of Jharkhand filled with folk dance, music, art forms, painting and customs. The CM also lauded the role played by tribal people in nation building while talking about their need to participate in the growth in equal manner.
“Tribal society has now awakened. They know that divisive forces are at work but they also understand how to defeat them to take the society and the country to their designated place. Large scale religious conversions have taken place in the State by using fraudulent means but now we have ruled the activities as illegal,” said the CM while thanking the organisers of the event.
Assembly Speaker Dinesh Oraon, Culture Minister Amar Kumar Bauri, Secretary of the Department Manish Ranjan, national convener of ‘Pragya Pravah’ J Nand Kumar, Vice Chancellor of CUJ Nand Kumar Indu and host of luminaries were present on the occasion.