After Dadri, President Pranab Mukherjee sends strong message on 'diversity', 'tolerance' and 'plurality'

New Delhi: Days after the Dadri lynching, President Pranab Mukherjee on Wednesday appealed for tolerance and sent a strong message, saying core values of the civilisation could not be allowed to be wasted.

“We can’t allow the core values of our civilisation to be wasted. The core values are that over the years, civilisation celebrated diversity, promoted and advocated tolerance, enjoyed plurality. These core civilisation values keep us together over the centuries,” Mukherjee said at a function at Rashtrapati Bhavan here.

“Many ancient civilisations have fallen. Despite aggression after aggression, our civilisation has survived because of our core civilisational values. If we keep that in mind, nothing can prevent our democracy from moving ahead,” he added.

The remarks come after a 50-year-old Muslim man, Mohammed Akhlaq, was beaten to death by a mob on the night of September 28 in Bisara village in Dadri near the national capital over rumours that he ate cow’s meat.

The Indian Express analyses how the President hit the right notes. Read the full report here.