Vice-President Jagdeep Dhankhar today said India, which was earlier labelled as a nation of snake charmers, is now charming the globe for what it offers to everyone.

“India is no longer a nation with a promise. India is no longer labelled as a nation of snake charmers. India is charming the entire world with the potential it has for everyone on the globe,” he said delivering the 4th P Parameswaran Memorial Lecture on the theme ‘Democracy, Demography, Development and the future of Bharat’ at Thiruvananthapuram.

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Reflecting on the growth trajectory of Bharat in the recent decade, he underlined, “People-centric policies and transparent accountable governance has given buoyancy to ecosystem…..a nation of one 1.4 billion, look at the transformative change that has impacted the rural firmament. Every house has a toilet, electric connection, water connection is on the way, a gas connection … .connectivity, internet and road, rail and handholding policies in the health and education sector. These define our growth trajectory”.

Mr Dhankhar said this economic renaissance, which was beyond imagination, beyond contemplation, beyond dreams a few years ago has generated what is the essence of Sanatana, inclusivity, non-discriminatory, uniform and even-handed equitable development results.

Expressing his concern over inorganic demographic transitions, Mr Dhankhar stated, “Demography does matter. Demography should not be confused with majoritarianism. We cannot have a society divided in these two camps.”

He said the nation is faced with grim challenges when it comes to demography. The demographic evolution must be organic. It must be natural. It must be soothing. Only then it reflects unity in diversity.

”But if demographic variations are brought about in the nature of virtual earthquakes, there is cause for concern. If inorganic demographic variations take place with intent to increase demographic component with the object to secure prowess then we have to be alarmed. This is being done. This is noticeably being done. We are at a stage, crossroads where we can neither overlook nor countenance this highly destabilising development. We have to be extremely alert. All have to converge to preserve the pristine demographic sanctity of Bharat,” the Vice-President said.

Drawing attention towards religious conversions he said, “ The challenge is coming in various forms: one is through allurements, temptations, reaching out to the needy and vulnerable, providing support, and then in a subtle way suggesting a change of religion, which is labeled as conversions. The country allows everyone to have a religion of his or her choice, this is our fundamental right, this is handed to us from our civilisational wealth but if this is tampered with, it is tweaked, it cannot be tolerated….Greed and temptation cannot be the basis for this.”