New Delhi: Vice President Jagdeep Dhankhar Monday said “some of our own people” were engaged in the orchestration of a campaign to run down India’s achievements and asserted that nationalist Indians cannot allow anyone to tarnish its functional democracy.
“We cannot allow our pudding to be spoiled by some who cannot see the growth story of this country,” he said, amid a political row over Congress leader Rahul Gandhi’s “democracy under attack” remarks in the UK.
Dhankhar said the politicians must play their politics and must have full freedom, “but when it comes to the nation, when it comes to constitutionalism, when it comes to working of institutions, I cannot observe silence.”
“We cannot allow as committed nationalist Indians, anyone to taint, tarnish, damage our functional democracy, our institutions, our Parliament,” he said without naming anyone.
Dhankar was addressing the 76th batch of IRS Officer Trainees and the excerpts of his speech were shared by his office.
“When on a wrong premise, a narrative is set afloat to sell an idea to the world…. And India is not what it is, we cannot take lightly such kinds of narratives. And mind you, no individual in this country, can claim to have the status or stature to run down this country. We cannot allow it and I am sure, you shall never allow it,” Dhankhar asserted.
The issue of Rahul Gandhi’s remarks also rocked Parliament on Monday, with BJP ministers accusing the Congress leader of trying to discredit India and demanding that he apologise.
The vice president said nowhere on earth one can find a judiciary that acts at lightning speed. “Can we ever question the independence of our judiciary? Our Supreme Court is the finest court manned by gifted people.”
“In our democracy, there will always be issues. There will be issues between legislature, executive and judiciary. Because we are in a dynamic society. Issues will keep on coming. These issues are required to be determined.
“Those who are at the apex of these institutions … Cannot be complainants. We have to be collaborators. We can’t be in reaction mode or adversarial mode. We have to be in resolution mode. We have to find solutions,” he said.
The vice president, also the chairperson of Rajya Sabha, had questioned the apex court verdict striking down a law to overturn the collegium system passed with near unanimity by Parliament.
Law Minister Kiren Rijiju had described the collegium system of appointing SC and high court judges as being “alien” to the Indian Constitution.
Dhankhar said during the COVID-19 pandemic, the prime minister called upon everyone to observe “people’s curfew”.
“People said there was no Covid. When we got our vaccines, people said how will these vaccines work, we should take vaccines of those countries – those companies are at the moment in the dock,” he said.
Dhankhar lamented that “some of our own people are engaged in the orchestration of a campaign to run down our achievements. How can we counter them? You all are wise. You all are intelligent. You have to discern and think. We cannot allow our pudding to be spoiled by some who cannot see the growth story of this country”.
He noted that social media is playing a very big role and “we all need to be alert”.
“We need to harness it in a manner so that we make India proud. We should ever be proud Indians and take pride in our historical accomplishments,” he said.
PTI
