Ahmedabad: Secularism is safe in India as it is in our DNA, Vice President Venkaiah Naidu said on Saturday, however adding that aberrations must be condemned.
Speaking at the 64th national convention of the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad here, he said, "Some people complain about secularism being in danger. Secularism is safe in India, not because of politicians, not because of the government, (but because) it is part of the DNA of all Indians."
"There will be certain aberrations here and there, certain instances may happen. Those instances should be condemned." He added people living in India irrespective of caste, sex, religion, and region "are one — one nation, one people, one country".
"So we must take care of our fellow citizen, we should not discriminate against him," he said.
The vice president said other countries are looking at India as it is on the growth path.
"Discuss, debate, decide, do not disrupt. That should be our thought process. We must develop a constructive attitude" he added.
He asked ABVP members to spread the message of "nation first" and asked people to be willing to "change according to climates" and "preserve, propagate and protect" Indian culture.
"We should be proud of being Indian. A country which forgets its culture and history cannot progress," he said.
The vice president asked the youth to promote their mother tongue, but not at the cost of engaging in linguistic tussles.
"Promote your mother tongue. We must protect Indian languages. We should not allow any fight between Bengali, non-Bengali, Telugu, non-Telugu, Tamil, non-Tamil, Hindi, non-Hindi. We should never ever allow such things to happen," he said.
Naidu was the chief guest at the ABVP's Yashwant Rao Kelkar Youth Award function, which was part of the student organisation's national convention being held here.
A teacher from Rajasthan, Sandeep Joshi, was chosen for this year's award.
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