As he lays down office later this month at the end of a distinguished tenure, President Pranab Mukherjee used the occasion of the release of the commemorative publication of the National Herald, the newspaper founded by Jawaharlal Nehru, on Saturday to urge fellow Indians “to be proactively vigilant to save the basic tenets of the country” when mob frenzy “becomes so high, irrational and uncontrollable”.

Needless to say, the President’s caution would not have been needed had the government intervened effectively to prevent mob frenzy from becoming “so high” and “uncontrollable”. The matter of maximum concern these days are the lynch killings of Muslim citizens in different parts of the country by cow vigilantes. After nationwide protests, it is this which Prime Minister Narendra Modi at last addressed on Thursday at Mahatma Gandhi’s Sabarmati Ashram, calling the killings in the name of cow protection “unacceptable”, and said these “will not be tolerated”.

The President raised the more fundamental question of being vigilant “to save the basic tenets of the country”, indicating that times were unpropitious and a rescue act was necessary. This means that the essential values enshrined in our Constitution are in need of stronger protection. Posterity will demand an explanation, the President warned, if we do not rise to the occasion. He reminded his fellow citizens that people of seven major religions speaking 200 languages and dialects lived in harmony in the country, thanks to the vision of people like Nehru. He said vigilance on our part will be “the biggest deterrent to forces of darkness and backwardness”.