Guwahati: President Pranab Mukherjee on Monday said the country should rethink its role in social investment and ways to morally uplift the society in view of the difficult times now.
"I don`t mean difficult times from the political perspective but mainly from the social point of view as certain recent events have shaped the collective consciousness of the nation," he said at a function here.
The brutal rape of the girl in Delhi shook the entire country. "It has made us sit back and rethink about our existence as a social being," he said.
"We have to rethink about our role in social investment and is it not the time to ponder and reset our moral compass," he said after giving away the Srimanta Sankardeva and Asom Ratna awards.
Highlighting the contribution of Srimanta Sankardeva not only to the Assamese society but also in other parts of the country, he said the Vaishnav saint had taken the initiative of discarding the artificial barriers of caste, creed and religion.
Sankardeva propagated the message of love, humanity and universal brotherhood and created new ideological perceptions which are still alive. The saint not only spread his philosophy through different forms of art, culture and literature but also instilled confidence in people that all are equal and that service of man is service of God.
"It is perhaps time to rekindle this spirit of humanism propounded by Sankardeva so many centuries ago and re-establish it to serve humanity in the best way to serve God and people," he added.
PTI
