BENGALURU: Stressing the importance of celebrating our diversity, former President Pranab Mukherjee said that recent incidents of violence being reported in the country had pained him.
Speaking at the Golden Jubilee celebrations of St Joseph’s Institute of Management in the city, he said, “When I go through newspapers in the morning, (and see) the headlines about the atrocities on innocent people, I feel sad. I feel anguished...because we live in a land which taught the word ‘Vasudhaiva
Kutumbakam’ (the world is one family).”
Saying that the Indian concept of nation was distinct from the European concept of nations, he said, “We believed we have no enemy. All are friends, we believed (and) all are equal. We believed we can exist by celebrating diversity,” he said.
Earlier, in his address, he had detailed the growth achieved by the country 70 years since independence, adding that there were ‘aberrations’ that still persisted and hindered progress.