NEW DELHI, Feb 3:
India will not accept any outside interference in its internal matters, Vice President M Venkaiah Naidu asserted on Monday.
The safety, security and integrity of India are non-negotiable, he told a gathering here.
Addressing participants of Kautilya Fellows Programme (KFP) organised by India Foundation, he said India believes in the philosophy of Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam that treats the whole world as one family and that it believes in sharing knowledge and wisdom. This ideal had shaped its interaction and outreach.
He said the same philosophy guided India’s external relations with other countries, both near and far. Bemoaning the attempts of one of India’s neighbours to promote cross-border terrorism by aiding, abetting and funding terror, Mr Naidu said India always believed in peaceful co-existence with all its neighbours.
He said India was never an aggressor and never attacked any country, an official release here said.
Stating that secularism was ingrained in the DNA of all Indians’ because of its age-old civilisational values, Mr Naidu said all minorities were safe and secure in India.
Describing the menace of terror as the enemy of entire humanity and that it has nothing to do with religion, the Vice President said mixing of religion with terror was problematic.
The Vice President urged the world community and multinational organisations such as the UN to conclude discussions on the Comprehensive Convention on International Terrorism proposed by India which has been pending before the UN since 1996. He said it was the duty of the world community to put an end to terror in all its forms and manifestations. On the reorganisation of Jammu and Kashmir state into two union territories of Jammu & Kashmir and Ladakh, he said the step was meant to fast-track the development of the region.
He maintained that despite the global economic slowdown, India continues to be one of the fastest-growing economies in the world and is poised to become the third-largest economy if the series of reforms were continued at the same pace.
Mr Naidu said India with its tremendous youth population could become the global hub for human resources. He opined that programmes like ‘Make in India’, Digital India, and Skill India were empowering the youth and creating enterprises.
“If we manage to educate and skill our vast youth population, we can very well become a global business hub,” he added.
Vice Admiral Shekhar Sinha, member of the Board of Trustees, India Foundation and Ram Madhav, member of Board of Governors and more than 100 participants of Kautilya Fellows Programme attended the event. (UNI)
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