Vice President cautions against intolerance in the name of cow, Love Jihad

Vice President M. Venkaiah Naidu on Monday cautioned against practising intolerance in the name of cow protection, Love Jihad and eating habits, saying such actions spoil the name of the country and people can't take law into their hands.

"We need to guard against intolerance on the part of certain misguided citizens. We have been occasionally witnessing such words and deeds of intolerance by some citizens in the name of so-called cow protection, Love Jihad, eating habits, watching films.

"Such incidents lead us to the point that individual freedoms can be in full play only when every citizen respects such freedoms of fellow citizens. Post-Emergency, the State apparatus would think twice before riding roughshod over the liberties and freedoms of citizens. But it is enlightened citizens who would enable fuller manifestation of such liberties and freedoms," Naidu said.

The Vice President said such actions of individual intolerance spoil the name of the country. "You cannot take the right to hang anyone. One has to be tolerant of the views of others while one must also be tolerant of the verdict of the people. Dissent also has a place. Freedom must be valued and rights of citizen should be guarded."

He also referred to the debate over nationalism and patriotism and wondered why some people had problem with even saying "Bharat Mata ki Jai". The expression is not merely geographical and love for the land but it is love for all opinions, religions, communities and people.

Naidu said India was secular not because of political parties but it was in the DNA of people and added that democracy and secularism were there in the Indian civilization through ages.

He asserted that the core Indian values and ethos have no place for intolerance due to which all major religions of the world flourish in India.

With IANS inputs