President Pranab Mukherjee on Friday expressed concern over the recent incidents of communal clashes and stated that the country has not learnt lessons from history and same “tragic mistakes” are being repeated.
“Why is it that we do not learn the lessons from our own history but keep repeating the same tragic mistakes?” he said.
“The Constitution lays down the fundamental duty of every citizen to promote harmony and spirit of common brotherhood among all the people transcending religious, linguistic and regional or sectional diversities,” the President said.
“However, despite this sacred mandate, the Directive Principles of State Policy, the safeguards that our laws provide and all the measures taken by our administrative machinery, why is it that communalism does not seem to go away from our society?,” he said after presenting the national communal harmony awards. Mr Mukherjee said none of country’s institutions preaches hatred, no religion preaches discord and on the contrary, they prescribe that it is the moral duty of every individual and of society as a whole, to spread peace and amity.
Describing communal ill-will as a disease of the mind, vice-president Hamid Ansari on Friday said there was a need to revisit the methodology by which societal harmony is being promoted.
Mr Ansari said absence of harmony in society impedes progress.
“Absence of harmony results in discord.”