NEW DELHI: Former President Pranab Mukherjee Thursday expressed concern that each one of the institutions that have led the country to commanding heights are being challenged and the “pluralistic fabric of our nation is being strained”.
Speaking on ‘Furthering India’s Promise’ organised by the Samruddha Bharat Foundation here, Mukherjee said India is being tested against “those very principles of differentiation and fundamentalism that Mahatma Gandhi, Jawaharlal Nehru, Sardar Patel, Babasaheb Ambedkar, Dr Rajendra Prasad, Maulana Azad, Rammanohar Lohia and all our other founders so decidedly rejected at the birth of the nation”.
“To my mind, it is now troubling because this process is not only being seen as positively disruptive but even necessary by large sections of society. Faced by an unequal distribution of resources and opportunities, an increasing number of our fellow Indians yearn for accelerated development that can secure fullness of life for all. They have started believing that it is their primordial identities that should be the basis for a claim on the State’s moral commitments,” he said.