Be citizens of the world, Pranab Mukherjee tells students

Former president’s advice to next gen: Humanity and universal brotherhood
Former President of India Pranab Mukherjee lights the lamp during the golden jubilee celebration Christ University in Bengaluru on Thursday | Vinod Kumar T
Former President of India Pranab Mukherjee lights the lamp during the golden jubilee celebration Christ University in Bengaluru on Thursday | Vinod Kumar T

BENGALURU: Speaking on the concept of nationalism to students of Christ University on Thursday, former president and Bharat Ratna Pranab Mukherjee exhorted them to look towards research to expand their mental horizons and become citizens of the world rather than just India. While touching upon the importance of research in education, Mukherjee said, “Research is fundamental to education in order to enlighten your mind. Expand your mental horizons and become not only citizens of India, but also of the world,” he said, also referring to age-old universities in India such as Takshashila and Nalanda.

“I was recently asked to speak on Indian nationalism and I asked myself how I would describe our country. India does not mean a group of identified persons, having the commonality of religion, language, culture with a common enemy. India has a vast multitude of people speaking 1,800 dialects, 170 languages, seven major religions and innumerable cultures, all under one flag and Constitution,” he said while addressing students at the golden jubilee celebrations of Christ deemed-to-be university. 

He said India could not consider anyone an enemy and our country is meant to be all-inclusive.  He advised the students: “What is important is humanity and universal brotherhood. As Jesus Christ said, ‘Forgive those who harmed you. Remember those who helped you’.”He further said: “During my Presidency I visited Istanbul University — built in 1431 — and Hebrew University, which has the oldest texts in the world available. All of them are part of our heritage and we cannot deny their existence or consider any of them our enemy. Our civilisation has taught us this from the beginning and India’s concept is all-inclusive, which means we must not reject anyone.”

He stressed on the importance of “Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam,” which means the whole world is one family.
Hinting at the present political culture in the country in the background of the current flavour of nationalism, Mukherjee iterated that politicians deal with the present while statesmen look at the future.
Dr Devi Shetty, Padma Bhushan awardee and chairman and founder of Narayana Health appreciated Pranab Mukherjee for being not just a politician but also a statesman.

“During the 2011 budget, a bombshell was dropped on us. A 5 per cent service tax was introduced on healthcare and senior doctors were very unhappy. I wrote to Mukherjee who was the finance minister then and did not expect a reply. However, he made an appointment to see me and asked how this tax would affect patients. I gave an example of how people sold their homes to pay for treatments costing Rs 1 lakh and this tax would mean an additional burden of Rs 5000 for them. After a few days, the tax was withdrawn. This should inspire other politicians to make our country a better place to live,” Shetty said.

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