India at pivotal moment, let contentious issues not distract us: President

Ram Nath Kovi also appealed to Indians to mark the 150th birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi by devoting themselves to the ideals that the Father of the Nation lived by

In his address to the nation on the eve of the 72nd Independence Day, President Ram Nath Kovind said today's India stood at the cusp of achieving many of its long-awaited goals, and appealed to citizensnot to allow “contentious issues and extraneous debates” to “distract us”.

Without referring directly to the Narendra Modi government’s various social welfare schemes, Kovind said on Tuesday India was now at a juncture that was very different from any period “we have experienced so far”.

The President said such “long-awaited goals” as “universal access to electricity, the elimination of open defecation, the elimination of homelessness, the