Venkaiah expresses concern over increasing rape cases
KURUKSHETRA: Vice-President M Venkaiah Naidu has expressed deep concern over the increasing incidents of rape and crime against women in the country.
“This is not our culture and we need to change our mindset. These incidents are shameful and highly condemnable,” he said while speaking at the 31st convocation of Kurukshetra University, without mentioning Kathua and Unnao rape cases.
“Our country was named as Bharat mata. Our rivers were named after women. Also, Saraswati mata is for knowledge, Durga mata for defence and Laxmi mata for finance,” he said and regretted that the people have started neglecting the cultural values.
“Neglecting women, who constitute 50% population, has serious consequences that we are facing today and there is a need to change this mindset,” he added. Naidu also condemned the incidents of violence and damage caused to public property during the recent protests in the country.
“Everybody has a right to protest but damaging public property during protests is wrong and we should avoid causing harm to our own country. Protests must be peaceful not destructive,” he added.
Naidu urged the people to think about the nation instead of getting divided over caste and religious lines.
Addressing the students who were awarded degrees he said, “We should not forget our values and culture and languages. No doubt, Hindi is also very important language in India but people of the country should learn more languages. North Indians should learn the languages being spoken in southern states.” He added, “Since I come from south and during my college days I had participated in anti-Hindi protests. But when I reached Delhi in 1993, I realised that Hindi language is important to grow in India.”
He asked the students not to forget their Maa (mother), matrabhumi (motherland), matrabhasha (mother language) and Guru. “Google cannot replace guru,” he added. Earlier, Haryana governor Kaptan Singh Solanki, who is also KU chancellor , conferred degrees on 84 PhD, 33 MPhil and 1,363 other students, who were wearing ethnic Indian dresses.
Neglecting women, who constitute 50% population, has serious consequences that we are facing today and there is a need to change this mindset.
M VENKAIAH NAIDU, Vice-President