Union Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad. (File Photo)
Union Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad on Friday said there is a need to guard against those trying to weaken the county’s morale “at the instance of foreign powers”.
“Some people are trying to break the nation’s resolve by spreading fake news. Some people’s job is to spread negativity…We respect and acknowledge the right of criticism, the right to ask questions, that’s what democracy is about. But if some people seek to weaken the morale of the country, particularly at the instance of foreign powers, to create discord, promote divisiveness, promote separatism and promote insidious ideas to create further hostility, then we need to guard against them…”, the minister said.
Prasad was speaking at Professor N R Madhava Menon Memorial Lecture Series organised by the Akhil Bharatiya Adhivakta Parishad.
Addressing the webinar, Prasad recalled Menon’s stand on the Supreme Court’s Sabarimala judgement.
“He took a very tough stand on Sabarimala issue. He said courts should be reluctant to interfere in the faiths of the people. If the faith is obnoxious, arbitrary, patently unconstitutional, it should go… but if you start being judgemental on faith and that too at instance of people who have no connection whatsoever with faith, then you are treading upon roads slippery… Before his death I heard him give his comments on Sabarimala judgment and I felt so proud about the depths of his knowledge…”, Prasad said.
Speaking about what the lockdown has achieved, Prasad cited India’s low death rate due to Covid-19. “If we exclude China, because China has a lot of questions to be answered, if we take fifteen countries of the world which are inflicted by Corona — America, England, Spain, Italy, Russia, Germany, France etc — the total population of these 15 countries is 142 crore and the population of India is 137 crores. The total number of deaths in these 15 countries is 3,53,000 odd till last evening and the death in India is 4500 odd…That’s what lockdown has done”.
Addressing the lawyer community, he said the lockdown had brought many difficulties but added that “this was necessary for your safety”.