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Attending the Sparsh Himalaya Mahotsav 2025, Rijiju said forces conspiring against India want to paint the country in a bad light to tarnish the nation and its leadership. (File Photo)
Warning that forces inside and outside the country were working to weaken it, Union Minister for Parliamentary Affairs and Minority Affairs Kiren Rijiju said in Dehradun on Monday that demands for secession “should not be encouraged”.
Attending the Sparsh Himalaya Mahotsav 2025, Rijiju said forces conspiring against India want to paint the country in a bad light to tarnish the nation and its leadership.
“Some people want to separate from India in the name of freedom. Some say Kashmir should be separate, the Northeast should secede, and that it is their freedom to demand this. However, this freedom should not be encouraged. Freedom should only be encouraged if it is for the welfare of the country,” he said.
Rijiju said several countries have disintegrated across the world, but the system in India can never collapse.
“Sometimes it feels that our country sees commotion, we have different languages and religions. At times, we see problems in Kashmir and at times in the Northeast and South India. We have conflicts in Parliament between the parties,” he said.
Point out that nations such as the USSR broke apart, Rijiju said, “You see these issues in neighbouring countries as well, be it Sri Lanka or Bangladesh or Nepal. Those who don’t understand India say that it will also witness this, [that] the Army will come into power and that people will agitate, but those episodes we see across the world can never happen in India.”
He attributed this to two reasons. “First, our character is different from the rest of the world. We follow rules, we are religious, we have the rule of law, and our heritage and culture are unique. This system cannot collapse. The second reason is our Constitution. When it was being drafted, debates went on for two years and 11 months in the Constituent Assembly. Every issue was discussed threadbare,” he said.
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Rijiju said several narratives that are abuzz on social media should not be believed. “But you should be alert. There are strong forces, within and outside our country, trying to destabilise it,” he added.
Acknowledging his roots in the Himalayas, the MP from Arunachal Pradesh said he felt an emotional bond with the mountain range. “Whenever I visit any Himalayan state, I get a sense of peace,” he said.
The festival was dedicated to 25 years of Uttarakhand’s statehood and 25 years of former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s vision of Lekhak Gram.
Aiswarya Raj is a correspondent with The Indian Express covering Uttarakhand. An alumna of Asian College of Journalism and the University of Kerala, she started her career at The Indian Express as a sub-editor in the Delhi city team. In her previous position, she covered Gurugaon and its neighbouring districts. She likes to tell stories of people and hopes to find moorings in narrative journalism. ... Read More
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