New Delhi: Vice President Jagdeep Dhankhar on Sunday cautioned that India’s rise at the global stage comes with challenges – within and without. He called for intelligentsia and the people to be cognizant of ‘incubators and distributors orchestrating pernicious narratives to downsize our growth trajectory and dent our functional democracy and constitutional institutions.’

Dhankhar was addressing a gathering after releasing a book ‘Governorpet to Governor's House: A Hick's Odyssey’ – a memoir of the former Governor of Tamil Nadu PS Ramamohan Rao in New Delhi. He lauded the former Governor for his contributions to public life and sharing his insightful experiences in his memoir.

Dhankhar observed that the ‘essence of democracy’ is that ‘all are similarly accountable to law. No one can have privileged consideration by law and be looked at through a different prism’. Suggesting that India is the most vibrant democracy, he said ‘equality before law is something we cannot negotiate’.

Noting that dynamics of governance would always be challenging, the Vice President said it required harmonized functioning of constitutional institutions – the legislative, the executive and the judiciary. But, he said, ‘there is no room for confrontation, or being a complainant, by those who head the institutions. They have to act in collaboration and find resolution in togetherness and tandem.’

It is here that the intelligentsia and people from the media come into picture. We all need to be cognizant of the emergence of incubators and distributors of anti-Indian forces orchestrating pernicious narratives to down size our growth trajectory and taint our functional democracy and constitutional institutions. It is imperative that we all believe in our nation and nationalism and engage in neutralizing such misadventures, he said.

In a democracy, all are similarly accountable to law. No one can have privileged consideration by law, else democracy will cease to exist if between A and B, A will be looked at by law through a different prism, he said.

He said: “Be you so high, the law is always above you. It is known to us all that there can be no such privileges. There can be no enforcement of these privileges. The rigours of law to apply to all. Some people unfortunately think they are different or to be dealt with differently.”

“There is no room for confrontation or being a complainant by those who head these institutions. Those who are heading the executive, legislature or judiciary, they cannot be complacent, they cannot act in confrontation. They have to act in collaboration and find resolution together,” he said. /BI/