His comments have come against the backdrop of a series of attacks, which were mostly driven by rumours related to beef consumption by another community.
"We should not let political leaders divide the society. Even eating habits are becoming an issue. Is this the society which our next generation is going to inherit?" he asked while addressing the concluding session of Aligarh Muslim University's two-day World Alumni Meet here yesterday.
Varshney, who is winner of the prestigious Dr Shanti Swaroop Bhatnagar Award and presently a Director at the Centre of Excellence in Genomics, Hyderabad, said it was "unfortunate that today tolerance level in the society was declining at an alarming pace."
On the occasion, industrialist Nadeem Akhtar Tarin announced setting up of a new Hall of residence to house 1,000 students, which is being funded entirely by the AMU Alumni Association, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
Tarin also pledged to raise more funds to help constructing more halls of residence for boys and girls to accommodate another eight thousand students by the year 2020.
Earlier, the varsity released a souvenir listing names of distinguished alumni of the University. A book based on the essays written by a large number of alumni remembering their days as students at the University was also released.