NEW DELHI: Vice President Jagdeep Dhankhar on Friday said that reference to Sanatan and Hindu in India evokes baffling reactions from ‘misguided souls’ driven by ‘dangerous ecosystem.’
While addressing the International Congress of Vedanta organised at JNU, Dhankhar said that people who react to these terms without understanding the depths of words and meaning is ironic and painful.
“It was ironic and painful that in this country reference to Sanatan, reference to Hindu evokes baffling reactions beyond comprehension,” Dhankhar said.
“Rather than understand the depth of these words, their deep meaning, people tend to be in a reaction mode at the drop of a hat,” he added.
Dhankhar also dubbed such persons as “souls which are misguided themselves” and are driven by a “dangerous ecosystem that is a threat not only to society but to themselves.
“Right of expression is a divine gift. Its curtailment, its dilution by any mechanism is not wholesome and this brings into picture another aspect, dialogue. If you have right of expression, (but) you don’t engage in dialogue then things can’t work out. Both these must go hand in hand,” said Dhankhar.
“Dialogue, debate, discussion, deliberation have exited under the onslaught of disruption and disturbance, even in the theatres of democracy,” he added.
The vice president said at a time when global disciplines are embracing the Vedanta philosophy, there are “some in this land of spirituality”, who dismiss Vedanta and Sanatani text as “regressive”.
“This dismissal often stems from perverted, colonial mindsets, inefficient understanding of our intellectual heritage. These elements work in a structured manner, in a sinister fashion,” the vice president said.
