New Delhi: Discrimination on the basis of religion, caste or gender is unacceptable to any “nationalist” and this approach should be followed by everyone, Vice President Venkaiah Naidu said Sunday.
Naidu, who is also the Rajya Sabha Chairman, called for deciding upon a national policy on the need for the Upper House in state legislatures, and urged political parties to evolve a consensus on the code of conduct for their members both inside and outside legislatures.
He made the remarks during the launch of the book ‘Moving on…Moving forward: A year in office’. The event was attended by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, former prime ministers – Manmohan Singh and H D Deve Gowda, Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley and Rajya Sabha’s Deputy Leader of Opposition Anand Sharma. Noting that the last session was called the “Session for Social Justice”, Naidu said it was important to consider and pass legislations that reflect collective commitment to social justice.
“In order to build a more inclusive society, there is a need to move towards ensuring proportional representation of all groups, especially those which have till now been under represented,” he said.
There is a need to cleanse politics, strengthen parliamentary and governance institutions, give a big push to next level of reforms to harness the entrepreneurial and economic potential, harness the energies of young India, and ensure sustainable and remunerative agriculture, Naidu said.
He also called for upholding the rich traditions of cultural diversity and nationalism.
“Nationalism, according to me — Bharat Mata ki Jai…it means ‘Jai Ho’ to all the 130 crore people irrespective of their caste, creed, sex or religion.”
“Any discrimination on the basis of religion, any discrimination on the basis of caste, any discrimination on the basis of gender, is not acceptable to any nationalist. That sort of approach should be there among everyone of us. I hope we all move in that direction,” Naidu said.
Meanwhile, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said that calling for discipline these days is branded “autocratic”, as he praised Vice President Naidu for being a “disciplinarian”.
“Venkaiah ji is a disciplinarian, but our country’s situation is such that it has become easy to call discipline undemocratic. If some one calls for discipline, he is branded autocratic…the whole dictionary is opened. But the discipline Venkaiah ji calls for he himself follows it,” he said.
The prime minister said whichever duty Naidu had, he performed it with utmost diligence and adapted into that role with ease.
“He has been in public life for 50 years. Ten years in student politics and 40 years in state as well as national politics,” he said.
Modi said former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee wanted to give Naidu a ministry in his government, but he said he wanted to be the minister of rural development.
“Venkaiah ji is a farmer at heart. He is passionate about the welfare of farmers and agriculture.”
“The Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana came into being due to the efforts of Naidu Ji. In a time when political discourse was centred around train stoppages only, he ensured that leaders began to think more about roads and other forms of connectivity,” Modi also said. (PTI)
