Almost echoing the Centre’s tough stand against sectarianism against the backdrop of the Dadri lynching case, governor Ch Vidyasagar Rao directed the state government on Monday to stay vigilant against forces inimical to communal harmony.
Rao rejected misgivings about Muslims in some quarters. “Islam is an integral part of India. The terrorists cannot wage jihad against India as we have the second largest Muslim population after Indonesia.” Reiterating the centuries-old bonds Hindus and Muslims have and the need to maintain this unity, he remarked: “We have to sail together, sink together.”
Speaking after presenting the Mahatma Gandhi Shantata Puraskar (Peace Award) to over a dozen senior police officers, civil servants and eminent Muslim leaders and social workers, the governor reiterated that the country’s progress would suffer in the absence of amity.
“Peace and order are prerequisite engines of growth for any society. Peace must be maintained at all costs,” said Rao. Joint police commissioner Atulchandra Kulkarni, joint CP (law and order) Deven Bharti, social worker Mohib Ali Nasser, surgeon-educationist Dr A R Undre and diagnosist-educationist Dr M A Patankar received the awards.
Rao told the police to keep tabs on miscreants who fan trouble through social media. He stressed the need to activate the mohalla committees to maintain harmony.