IANS
New Delhi: Admitting “some amount of intolerance” exists in society, parliamentary affairs minister M Venkaiah Naidu said in the Rajya Sabha Monday that the issues need to be “localised and dealt with firmly”.
The minister, however, added instead of that, issues are being generalised, showing India in a “poor light”.
“There is some amount of intolerance in the society in different areas, that has to be identified, that has to be localised, it has to be dealt with firmly,” Naidu said while participating in a discussion on ‘Commitment to the Constitution’ as part of 125th birth anniversary celebrations of Bhimrao Ambedkar.
“Instead of that, we are trying to make it generalised, which in turn shows India in a poor light which is not in national interest,” he said.
“Keep that in mind and then when intolerance debate takes place in the house, there are other seniors who will participate in that. I am only appealing. Let us all be tolerant to each other, and then tolerant towards the mandate of the people,” he said.
“According to me, biggest tolerance, biggest respect to the constitution is respect of mandate of people,” he added.
“This is also an important aspect that there has to be respect to verdict of the people. Respect to the other man’s belief,” the minister said.
Naidu also said there have been incidents of intolerance under different regimes and it is not that it started happening after Narendra Modi became the Prime Minister. “…All these things have not happened overnight after Narendra Modi has become the Prime Minister. These things have been happening in different parts of the country. I am not trying to justify anything. The atrocities on Dalits. Are they happening now?” he asked.
Referring to former finance minister P Chidambaram’s comment that banning Salman Rushdie’s Satanic Verses was a mistake, Naidu said there should be a uniform policy on banning books and even banning “feelings”.
