Kovind takes oath as president, says diversity makes us unique
SWEARINGIN Advocates the need to build an India that is an economic leader and a moral exemplar
Newly-elected President Ram Nath Kovind said on Tuesday the key to India’s success was its diversity and emphasised the need to enhance opportunities for the underprivileged in the country to help build an egalitarian society.
In his first address at the Parliament’s Central Hall after taking oath as the 14th President of India, Kovind advocated the need to build an India that was “an economic leader as well as a moral exemplar”.
“For us, those two touchstones can never be separate. They are and must forever be linked. The key to India’s success is its diversity. Our diversity is the core that makes us so unique,” he told a gathering of governors, chief ministers, senior politicians, diplomats and other guests.
Kovind, who took over from Pranab Mukherjee, referred to the “mix of states and regions, religions, languages, cultures, lifestyles and much more” that was India. “We are so different and yet so similar and united,” he said.
The 71-year-old said while India had achieved “a lot” as a nation, “the effort to do more, to do better and to do faster should be relentless”. He said this was especially true as the country approached the 75th year of its independence in 2022.
India, he said, should focus on its ability to “enhance access and opportunity for the last person and the last girl child from an underprivileged family in the last house in the last village”. This must include a “quick and affordable justice delivery system”, Kovind, a Dalit, said.
Echoing what his predecessor Mukherjee said on Monday, Kovind said that poor people should be included in the coun- try’s prosperity. “We need to sculpt a robust, high growth economy, an educated, ethical and shared community, and an egalitarian society, as envisioned by Mahatma Gandhi and Deen Dayal Upadhyay,” he said.
These principles, he said, were “integral to our sense of humanism”.
“This is the India of our dreams, an India that will provide equality of opportunities. This will be the India of the 21st century,” he said.
Kovind made a special reference to the role women played in “nation building”. Women who, despite responsibilities at home and work, raised children to be “ideal citizens” were nation builders, he said.
Nations were not built by governments alone, he said, for the government could at best be a facilitator and a trigger for society’s entrepreneurial and creative instincts.
“The farmer toiling in the blazing sun to feed fellow citizens is a nation builder, armed forces that protect the borders are nation builders and police and paramilitary personnel who fight terror
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