Vice President M. Venkaiah Naidu on Tuesday called for a global consensus to fight terrorism and criticised those who are supporting the global menace in the name of religion.
Naidu also sought support of over three crore Persons of Indian Origin (PIO) across the world in building a "New India".
"The biggest challenge to world order today is terrorism and we must build a global consensus to fight the menace," Naidu said in the valedictory session of the first-ever PIO-Parliamentarians Conference here.
The Vice President said: "All of us must recognise terrorism as a threat to humanity and take concerted action to curb it."
"Unfortunately, some people are clothing terror in the garb of religion, but in fact, terrorism has no basis in any religion of the world," he said.
Naidu said the Indian diaspora, the second-largest such community in the world, "has contributed enormously to strengthening India's cultural, literary, political and economic bonding across the world".
Citing an example of a squirrel, who participated in making of a bridge across the sea for Lord Ram to reach Lanka, the Vice President urged the PIOs to contribute in "an appropriate manner to the ongoing efforts to build a New India".
Naidu asserted that the success of Indian diaspora in different parts of the world was a clear reflection of the strength of the Indian values of assimilation and inclusivity.
"The presence of such a large number of elected representatives of Indian origin in legislatures of such a large number of countries from across the world goes beyond the symbolism of the expanding horizons of the influence of India in the global scheme of things," he said.
The Vice President noted: "When we talk of Indian Nationalism, we refer to the pride that is associated with such inclusive humanism, which is native to this land.
Some deviant words and deeds of some misguided persons can in no way dent the quality and strength of the core values of our motherland."
He asserted that while the citizens took pride in the spirit of Indian nationalism that unites the people of different social and religious hues cohabiting in the country, "PIOs imbibe and uphold the ethos and values of those countries which again is a manifestation of the spirit of assimilation, which is at the heart of core Indian values".
In all, 143 PIOs from 24 countries participated in the event organised here at Pravasi Bharatiya Bhavan.
--IANS
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