Railways Minister Suresh Prabhu today suggested that the 'oath of office' should include the vow to uphold the unity of society and said it will help end discrimination against certain sections of people and make India a super power.
India could not realise its full potential because groups like Dalits were discriminated against for a long time, he said.
"While taking oath we say we will uphold the sovereignty and integrity of India. I think it should be added that we will also uphold the unity of the society... The nation will progress only when the society will work together," the Union Minister said at a function held to pay tributes to noted Dalit leaders.
Citing the example of the architect of Constitution B R Ambedkar and former Deputy Prime Minister Jagjivan Ram, Prabhu said these icons were second to none in their field and it showed that how much the nation could have achieved if Dalits were treated like equals.
Drawing a cricketing analogy, he said a team cannot play well if some of its players were not allowed to bat, ball and field and in the same manner a country cannot realise its true potential if every body was not given an equal chance.
BJP's Scheduled Castes Cell head Sanjay Paswan and party leader Suraj Bhan Kataria, who organised the event, said Dalit leaders should not be confined to one party or community as their contribution helped the entire nation.
