New Delhi: President Ram Nath Kovind on Friday gave a clarion call to people to perform the “sacred act” of voting, emphasising this year’s polls should be seen as a “once-in-a-century moment” that will shape the India of the remainder of the 21st century. He made the appeal in his address to the nation on the eve of the 70th Republic Day and also because January 25 is observed as National Voters Day.
Lok Sabha polls are just a couple of months away.
Vice-president Venkaiah Naidu and Prime Minister Narendra Modi also appealed young voters to enrol themselves.
Observing that an election is not just a political exercise, Mr Kovind said it is a collective call to wisdom and a collective call to action, adding the ideas and idealism of our democracy will come into force to elect the 17th Lok Sabha.
The President said development of the country cannot be completed without a salute to the “spirit of inclusiveness and pluralism which rests on a “tripod of diversity, democracy and development”.
“This country belongs to each of us and to all of us — every group and every community, every region and every identity. It belongs to every citizen and every individual. India’s pluralism is its greatest strength and its greatest example to the world. “The ‘Indian model’ rests on a tripod of diversity, democracy and development. We cannot choose one above the other; we must have all three and we will have all three,” he said.
