Uniformity can’t replace pluralism, says Pranab Mukherjee

New Delhi: President Pranab Mukherjee, while addressing the first foundation course of the All India Service Probationers at Lal Bahadur Shastri National Academy of Administration in Mussouri, Uttarakhand, emphasised on Friday that pluralism and tolerance have been hallmarks of the Indian civilisation. He told the probationers, “Your responsibility as future policy makers is to strengthen the system, which has been established with the objective that we can’t substitute our plural characters, our pluralism by uniformity. Straitjacket uniformity, even if it is imposed, will not succeed as it has been proved on several occasions.”

The President asserted that pluralism can’t be substituted with uniformity. He also praised the “exemplary” maturity shown by the Indian electorate in giving a clear verdict to a political party at the Centre after 30 years, shunning “opportunistic” political coalitions. He also spoke at length on the wisdom of the Indian electorate. He said people have been discharging their responsibility and it was incumbent upon the “elected” to transform their aspirations into reality. 

He added people decided that it was “enough to make experiments with capricious, selfish, opportunistic political coalitions” just to form a government, so after 30 years they gave a “clear political verdict” in favour of a political party. He also departed from his prepared speech and spoke about challenges faced by India especially in the context of post partition period.

The President had chided the Opposition on Thursday for disruption in the House. “People send representatives to speak and not to sit on dharna and not to create any trouble on the floor,” he said.