Congress president Sonia Gandhi on Tuesday said that the "current uneasy environment" is the reason for growing intolerance in the country and stressed the need of efforts to control the rapid decline in communal harmony.
"All efforts must be made for communal harmony to promote universal brotherhood and communal harmony," she said at a national conclave of poets held her to mark birth anniversary of independence activist and politician Jagjivan Ram, fondly addressed as 'Babuji'.
The three-hour-long conclave, presided over by former Lok Sabha speaker and daughter of Jagjivan Ram Meira Kumar, focused on issues of social justice, equity, universal brotherhood and communal harmony.
Gandhi stressed the need for drawing inspiration from work and philosophy of Jagjivan Ram, to build up a casteless society and a respectable life for the downtrodden.
Eminent poets including Ashok Chakradhar, Sunil Jogi, Rahat Indori, Mohan Samar, Suman Dubey, Suresh Nirab and Prabha Thakur participated in the conclave.