Lucknow, Oct 4 : Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath on Sunday said the country needs to be united and should not be divided into warring caste camps.
Adityanath said dividing society in the name of caste, region and language was an offence against the nation. He was addressing a teachers’ workshop organised by the Akhil Vishwa Gayatri Pariwar as part of its centenary celebrations at Dr BR Ambedkar Auditorium of Dr Ram Manohar Lohia National Law University here.
“The country needs an ‘Ek Bharat-Shreshtha Bharat and not an India divided and fighting in caste camps. Teachers have a key responsibility in preventing divisive forces from succeeding. While one section had sought to divide society during the period of slavery, another had worked to unite people and raise the call for freedom,” he said.
“The same tendency is visible today in different forms,” he said, calling upon teachers to ensure that forces seeking to divide society do not succeed.
Adityanath said people must resolve to shed the mindset of slavery, take pride in their heritage, promote social equality and work towards building a developed India as the country moves towards the centenary of Independence in 2047.
“If every person gives greater importance to duty than rights, no power in the world can dare to challenge India,” he said.
Paying tributes to Gayatri Pariwar founder Pandit Shriram Sharma and Mata Bhagwati Devi, Adityanath said the organisation had demonstrated social unity by bringing people together through yajnas.
He said Sharma could have named the organisation after himself but chose to give primacy to an idea.
“Organisations that run in the name of an individual eventually collapse, while an idea travels a long journey,” Adityanath said, adding that the Gayatri Pariwar’s 100 years of work was evidence of this.
Referring to the founding of the Gita Press in 1923, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh in 1925 and the Akhil Vishwa Gayatri Pariwar in 1926, he said their paths were different, but all three contributed to awakening public consciousness and connecting society with traditional values, India and Indianness.
He also highlighted the importance of joint families, saying their weakening had been accompanied by greater fragmentation and stress. The Gayatri Pariwar should also work to strengthen families, he said.
BJP MLA Rajeshwar Singh also spoke at the event and said the education budget had increased under Adityanath’s leadership and the dropout rate had declined. He also highlighted recruitment of teachers on merit and expansion of smart-class facilities in schools.
