New Delhi, August 31
Asserting that communalism, insurgency and violence would be dealt with firmly, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh today said there is no grievance that cannot be redressed through democratic means and dialogue.

Inaugurating the day-long meeting of the National Integration Council (NIC) here at the Vigyan Bhawan, Dr Singh also asked every political group that claims to represent the interests of any section of the people “must test and demonstrate its popularity through the institutions of our democracy.”

The Prime Minister said “while we promote national integration and our core value of tolerance, any covert challenges we face in the form of communalism, extremism, separatism and insurgency and violence will need to be dealt with firmly.”

“Our democracy gives everyone the right to articulate that grievance in a democratic manner. No civilized society can tolerate violence and extremism. No one has the right to take the law into their own hands. No society can pardon those who kill innocent people,” the Prime Minister spoke in an assertive tone.

“There is no grievance, howsoever extreme and desperate, that cannot be redressed through democratic means. Democracy allows us the freedom to espouse our cause and win people over to our point of view,” the Prime Minister said addressing the NIC, which is meeting after nearly 13 years.

The meeting of NIC is being attended by former Prime Ministers A.B. Vajpayee, V.P. Singh and I.K. Gujral, BJP President L.K. Advani, union ministers, chief ministers and a host of key political leaders, mediapersons, industrialists and public figures.

The Prime Minister said he was delighted to have Mr Vajpayee at the meeting as he had attended the very first meeting of the Council in June 1962.

Listing “communalism, casteism, regionalism and linguism”, as identified by Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, as the four threats to the basic principles of our Republic, Dr Singh said “not only must we nip in the bud any attempt to disturb our secular fabric, we must actively promote the spirit of communal harmony.”

Perhaps, their relative importance had altered and possibly declined over the years as our identity as a nation had grown. But it should remain our endeavour to find ways in which we can battle against these “incipient threats” to our national unity, he said.

“The ideologies of communalism, of casteism, of regional and linguistic chauvinism have to be fought in a more sustained and intelligent manner,” he said adding “we need a more humane, inclusive and liberal political culture and our social and family values must be rooted in our civilisational commitment to pluralism and liberalism.”

The agenda of today’s meeting includes issues of communal harmony — role of government, education and media.

Referring to his visit to Kabul early this week, the Prime Minister recalled with pride Afghan President Hamid Karzai citing India’s democratic experience as a model for Afghan people as they rebuild their nation and sought a new future of peace and prosperity.

“We salute the courage and wisdom of leaders like President Karzai who, like us, seek salvation for their people through the framework of an open society and an open economy. It is not just in our neighbourhood but in distant lands and in the world’s greatest capitals that our democratic experience in nation building is now regarded with admiration”, Dr Singh said.

The Prime Minister asked the chief ministers to invest in education, health, infrastructure, better governance and in transforming rural economy. “An improvement in the lives and livelihood of the rural poor is an important element of national integration”.

Dr Singh said that as the country developed rapidly and assumed its natural role on the world stage, there was a need to periodically meet and reflect on the ideas and values at the core of our nationhood and discuss measures to meet the challenges posed to these values.

The Prime Minister said he took pride in the fact that the people of India had proved the “prophecies of doom and plotters of distress” wrong.

It was not so very long ago that many across the world were writing off the Indian experiment in nation-building: “India will be balkanised, predicted the Cassandras of catastrophy. Some plotted to inflict a thousand cuts on us in the hope that our nationhood will succumb to such pain. Some felt that we as a nation were doomed to failure because of the immense challenges posed by our diversity, our size and extensive poverty.”

But today, “we stand tall as the world’s largest democracy. Our experience with nation-building in a democratic framework is looked upon with hope. It is seen as a model worthy of emulation.”

Democracy has been the most important instrument of our nation-building as it had contributed immensely to the emotional integration of the many and varied peoples of the country, he said.