Tolerance has nose-dived in India: says Nariman

Eminent jurist Fali S. Nariman on Wednesday said "tolerance has come to a low level" and that the country would have done better by upholding tolerance at all levels.

"Tolerance in all walks of life has come to a very low level," Nariman said delivering a lecture on the preamble of the constitution organised here by the Lok Sabha's Bureau of Parliamentary Studies and Training (BPST).

"Country could have done better by maintaining and upholding tolerance among all sections of the people," he said, adding that the word "fraternity" in the preamble is very crucial and all efforts must be made to ensure that certainty feeling prevailed in the society.

Nariman, who had resigned as additional solicitor general to protest the imposition of emergency, said the problem of dictatorial rule is that offence is misused at the ground level and the remote districts of the country.

Nariman maintained "in retrospect" that he often thinks emergency was perhaps better because it exposed some of the judges who had compromised before the ruling dispensation in the 1970s.

The lecture was also attended by Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan and Members of Parliament from various parties.

--IANS

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