Atrocities against minorities, Dalits increasing: Manmohan Singh

Former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh today said atrocities against minorities and Dalits were increasing in the country and such incidents, if unchecked, could harm democracy and called for rejection of "divisive policies and politics".

Delivering the first S B Rangnekar Memorial lecture at the Panjab University, his alma mater, here, Singh also said a "dangerous and false binary" of choosing between freedom and development was surfacing in the country's political discourse and that it must be rejected.

He expressed concern over the alleged attempts being made to divide people.

"I need not dwell long on the current deep concern that attempts are being made to divide the Indian people on the basis of religion and caste, language and culture. Atrocities against minorities and Dalits are increasing. If unchecked, these tendencies can only harm our democracy. As a people, we must strongly reject divisive policies and politics," he said.

The former prime minister asserted that freedom of a country did not mean the freedom of just its government. "It is the freedom of people, which, in turn is not the freedom only of its privileged and powerful, but the freedom of every Indian."
"What is required is stronger social and political reawakening to the principle of equality - social, economic and political - for the sake of equality and as a mark of our commitment to democracy. In the short term, pro-equality policies may make growth more expensive, but the growing inequality is, in the long term, a far greater danger to economic well being and sustained growth."