When mob frenzy gets high, we must pause & reflect: Prez

President Pranab Mukherjee, on Saturday, appealed the people to pause and reflect when communal hatred gets high and uncontrollable.

Speaking at the launch of publication National Herald's commemorative edition and new website, the President said that vigilant citizens, intellectuals and media would serve as the most potent force against the forces of darkness. "Eternal vigilance is the prize of liberty and that vigilance can never be passive. An active vigilance is the need of hour," Mukherjee said, adding, "We should ponder about this country when we see someone being lynched. I am not taking of vigilantism, I am taking of are we proactively vigilant enough, proactively to save the basic tenets of our country."

Hoping that India must be on the right side of countries trying to be free from colonial rule, the President said that the Battle of Plassey was lost due to traitors and India fell to colonial rule. "I do not have any apprehension that old colonialism is coming back, but colonialism comes in different form, when exploitation and dominance took place by one power to another. We must not forget that our Independence came from the non-violent principles of Mahatma Gandhi," he further said.

Quoting first Prime Minister Nehru's reply to Andre Muller's question after the 1952 General election about the most challenging task he had faced that he had converted a highly religiously country into nation of a modern secular belief and doctrine, Mukherjee said. "Our biggest challenge today is to defeat the demons of poverty, hunger and diseases with the framework given in our constitution," he added.

Incidentally, the President's assertion came after Prime Minister Narendra Modi strongly voiced out against the lynching incidents on Thursday, saying that there are growing atrocities against innocent people in the guise of cow protection.

"Killing people in the name of Gau Bhakti is not acceptable. This is not something that Mahatma Gandhi would have approved. There is no place for violence in the society," PM Modi said at Sabarmati Ashram centenary celebrations.