New Delhi: With uncontrollable cases of growing mob lynchings, President Pranab Mukherjee on Saturday took a broadside against the administration and asked ‘are we vigilant enough proactively to save the basic tenets of our country’.
He also said that “vigilance on the part of citizens, intellectuals and media can act as the biggest deterrent to the forces of darkness and backwardness.”
While the Launch of the commemorative publication, National Herald, Mukherjee urged the journalists that their job will never come to an end and their motto should be ‘freedom first, freedom now, freedom forever’, reported OneIndia.
“We shall have to ponder over, pause and reflect. When we read in the newspapers or see on the television that an individual is being lynched because of some alleged violation of law or not when mob frenzy becomes so high, irrational and uncontrollable, we are to pause and reflect,” he said.
“Are we vigilant enough? I am not talking about vigilantism, I am talking about are we vigilant enough proactively to save the basic tenets of our country? We cannot avoid it. Posterity will demand an explanation from us that ‘What have you done,'” he added.
“Today, I am not going to suggest that there is any apprehension of the old type of colonialism to come back. But colonialism has always taken its different face with the change of history, exploitation, dominance by one power to another power. I will appeal to the media persons that your duty, your job has never come to an end, and it will never come to an end,’ he said reminding journalists.
He further said that because of the journalists, democracy survives, people’s rights are preserved, human dignity is maintained, slavery is kept away. They have to keep their vigilance. ‘I am sorry I am using this word repeatedly but I don’t find any alternative appropriate word,’ he stated.
The President, who will be stepping down later this month said that “our achievements in the last 70 years are not just about building dams or power plants etc. It is not just about economic independence or regional prosperity but our unity, which is our greatest strength,” Mukherjee said.