President Pranab Mukherjee and Prime Minister Narendra Modi today launched Vice President Mohd Hamid Ansari's book titled "Citizen and Society" at the Rashtrapati Bhawan in New Delhi.
"The volume being released here is a collection of memorial or anniversary lectures, convocation addresses and speeches on specific themes and occasions. My endeavour in each was to ascertain and dilate upon a theme pertaining to the citizen body. These of necessity cover polity, identity, empowerment, security and some aspects of global affairs. In each, the effort is to probe the diversity of challenges that confront us," said Vice-President Ansari.
"My answers are answers of one citizen of this great Republic of over a billion souls whose lives are guided by the constitution of India and a value system reflective of our immense diversity and are premised on the rule of law," he added.
"An open society like our needs more debate and greater elbow room for unorthodox views. A plural society like ours needs to develop the mindset to move beyond tolerance to acceptance of diversity. The quest continues hence the need to keep walking towards the receding horizon," he further said.
Describing Ansari's life as that of a perfect citizen, President Mukherjee said that the theme of the book is that a citizen cannot be apolitical and has to take part in politics to build the society.
Speaking on the occasion, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said, it is a matter of pride that India has hundreds of languages, various religions and beliefs.
"We should be proud that we are in a country where there are hundreds of languages, various religions and beliefs," she said.
Disclaimer: No Business Standard Journalist was involved in creation of this content