Former President Pranab Mukherjee expressed concern over rising intolerance and violation of human rights, coupled with a widening gulf between the rich and poor with the top one percent rich pocketing the lion’s share of country’s wealth.
He was speaking at the inauguration of the two-day national conference on “Towards Peace, Harmony and Happiness: Transition to Transformation”, organized by Pranab Mukherjee Foundation along with the Centre for Research for Rural and Industrial Development.
“The land which gave the world the concept of ‘Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam’ and the civilizational ethos of tolerance, acceptance, and forgiveness, is now in news for rising levels of intolerance, manifestations of rage and infringement of human rights,” Mukherjee said.
“Peace and harmony prevail when a nation celebrates pluralism, practices tolerance and promotes goodwill among diverse communities and when we purge the toxin of hatred, envy, jealousy, and aggression from our everyday lives,” he said. Referring to the statistics, he said: If these statistics are anything to go by, we appear to be caught in a ‘rising economy, receding happiness’ syndrome. Our growth paradigm calls for an urgent look.”
Mukherjee said that on the ranking of the happiness of common man, India ranks at 113, on the index of hunger, India is at 119. Similar is the situation on the rating of malnutrition, suicides, inequality a, d economic freedom.
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