Avoid hysteria in political discourse, against India's ethos: Mukherjee

President Pranab Mukherjee on Sunday said every effort must be made to avoid hysteria in political discourse, as it was abhorrent to India's traditional ethos of pluralism, tolerance and promotion of goodwill between diverse communities.

Addressing the nation on the eve of India's 66th Republic Day, Mukherjee said, "The Indian Constitution is the holy book of democracy. It is a lodestar for the socio-economic transformation of an India whose civilization has celebrated pluralism, advocated tolerance and promoted goodwill between diverse communities."

"These values, however, need to be preserved with utmost care and vigilance. The freedom inherent in democracy sometimes generates an unhappy by-product when political discourse becomes a competition in hysteria that is abhorrent to our traditional ethos. The violence of the tongue cuts and wounds people's hearts. Religion, said Gandhiji, is a force for unity; we cannot make it a cause of conflict," he added.

He further stated that with so many countries sinking into the morass of theocratic violence, India's projection as a soft power has assumed greater credibility.

"We have always reposed our trust in faith-equality, where every faith is equal before the law and every culture blends into another to create a positive dynamic. Wisdom of India teaches us: unity is strength, dominance is weakness," he said.