NEW DELHI: Voicing concern over violent “non-state actors” controlling large territories and unleashing barbaric violence, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday said ideologies should give way to dialogue so that conflicts could be resolved.
Speaking at the “Global Hindu-Buddhist Initiative on Conflict Avoidance and Environment Consciousness”, organised by the Vivekananda International Foundation here, the Prime Minister said without naming any outfit: “Intolerant non-state actors now control large territories where they are unleashing barbaric violence on innocent people...The severe limitations in our conflict resolution mechanisms are becoming more and more obvious. It is, thus, no surprise that the world is taking note of Buddhism.”
The PM said ideologies which he said closed the door to dialogue had the propensity to indulge in violence. “Hindu and Buddhist religions are in that sense more philosophies and not just belief systems. It is my firm belief that the solution to all problems lies in dialogue,” he said at the conference.
The three-day event titled “Samvad” will shift to the holy Buddhist town of Bodhgaya on its last day.
“It used to be believed that force indicates power, but now power must come through the strength of ideas and effective dialogue which produces no anger or retribution”, he said, citing the debate between Adi Sankara and Mandana Mishra over their conflicting versions of Hindu philosophy.
Describing climate change as a pressing global challenge, Modi suggested a shift of the discourse on the issue from “climate change to climate justice”.