Growing intolerance has challenged the idea of India that former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi stood for and espoused all her life, Congress Vice-President Rahul Gandhi said on Tuesday while delivering the key note lecture at the presentation of Indira Gandhi Award for National Integration to Carnatic music maestro T.M. Krishna for his “exemplary service in promoting national unity.”
“That idea of India that Indira Gandhi fought for has been thrown fundamentally into question by the rising intolerance that we are witnessing today. A view of Indianness that is one-sided, discriminatory, even warped, is being thrust upon us,” said Mr. Gandhi who made it clear that he was reading out from his mother’s speech who skipped the function as she was advised rest after recovering from an upset stomach.
Without naming the ruling party or the Modi government, the Congress leader said, “The country’s heritage is now in the hands of those who are bent upon rewriting history, imposing falsehood and unscientific ideas on our people and stifling independent thinking. The liberal, tolerant Indian ethos that Indira Gandhi embodied in her life and beliefs is openly rejected and repudiated.”
Arguing that the idea of national integration has never been more necessary than today, the Congress leader said Mr. Krishna stood out as a “catalyst for social progress and change, challenging regressive barriers of divisiveness and intolerance.”
Former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said, “Mr. Krishna’s work teaches the importance of caring the environment we live in, particularly engaging with diverse groups and treating them with sensitivity.”
Accepting the Indira Gandhi award for the year 2015-16, Mr. Krishna argued that the beauty of India’s democracy is to celebrate plurality of cultures than imposing a monolithic view of culture.
“Democracy becomes a vital non-negotiable instrument, the instrument of humanity,” he said accepting the award.