Elect people who have character, calibre, capacity, conduct: Vice President

Vice President M Venkaiah Naidu on Sunday exhorted people to look for four qualities - character, calibre, capacity and conduct - while electing their representatives.

Those who possess a set of other four Cs - cash, community, caste and criminality - should be shunned, he added.

"If people want to give someone a job of responsibility... in the panchayat, as an MLA and or as an MP, they should elect those having the four qualities of character, calibre, capacity and conduct.

"But it is unfortunate that a set of politicians does not have these four Cs. They are interested in having cash, community, caste and criminality. People should avoid them," he said at a function organised to mark the centenary celebrations of the Patna University's library here.

The vice president said there should not be any discrimination on the basis of caste, religion and gender.

"Be it Hindu, Muslim, Christian, Sikhs - we all are Indians and we are one. There should be no discrimination on the basis of caste, religion or gender," he said.

The sooner India gets rid of such discrimination, Naidu said, the better it will be for the growth and development of the country and the states.

The vice president also asked the students to always remember five things - parents, birth place, mother tongue, country and national unity.

Hindi, Bhojpuri, Magahi, Maithili, Telugu, Tamil and Marathi are beautiful languages and people should use them instead of English, he said.

"I am not against English but people should first learn their own language and then any other," Naidu said.

He assured the students that he would talk to Union HRD Minister Ramesh Pokriyal and find out if measures could be taken to accord a central university status to the Patna University.

"As per the Constitution, the vice president holds the second-most important position in the country... I will talk the Union Human Resource Development minister and find out what can be done. I will personally see to it if appropriate steps can be taken for according a central university status to the Patna University," Naidu said.

Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, who had been pitching for the tag for a while now, also expressed hope that the vice president will take necessary measures to fulfill the state's long-pending demand.