Open minds, not just economy, to honour Rajiv’s legacy: Sonia
NEW DELHI: The opening of the economy and the closing of the mind is a dangerous and destructive mix, UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi said on Monday at an event to confer the Rajiv Gandhi Sadbhavana award function to former diplomat and Mahatma Gandhi’s grandson Gopalkrishna Gandhi.
She also called for resolve to oppose “the ideologies that reject the composite essence of our nationhood and to fight the forces of divisiveness, hate and bigotry”.
Addressing the annual event here, Sonia said late Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi was an advocate of faster economic growth and economic modernisation but maintained that growing prosperity and social liberalism were two sides of the same coin.
“Both had to go hand-in-hand. Technological capability would have little value in a climate of growing scientific obscurantism and social prejudice,” she said.
“We have seen that the opening of the economy and the closing of the mind is a dangerous and destructive mix,” Sonia added.
Observers feel that her comments were aimed at the ruling dispensation.
Sonia went on to say that Rajiv Gandhi believed in India’s unity and incredible diversity.
“That is what sadbhavna meant to him — not just acceptance of, not just respect for, but most fundamentally, a celebration of our society’s many diversities. Not just a passive acquies-
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Technological capability would have little value in a climate of growing scientific obscurantism and social prejudice. We have seen that the opening of the economy and the closing of the mind is a destructive mix SONIA GANDHI, UPA chairperson
cence and tolerance of different points of view, but active engagement - so that every citizen of India is enabled to lead a life of dignity, security and self-respect,” she added.
Echoing Sonia’s sentiments, former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh appealed for reflection on how to work together and contribute in arresting “disturbing trends” of intolerance, communal polarisation and incidents of violent crimes propelled by hate groups and mobs being witnessed in the country.
In her speech, Sonia also hailed Gopalkrishna Gandhi as one of the most eloquent and uncompromising champions of the Constitutional values when they are under “determined and systematic assault”.
“There is much pain and anguish in what he has been writing in recent years and every right-thinking and right acting Indian shares not only his analysis of what is going wrong but also his profoundly sensitive articulation of what needs to be done,” Sonia said.