New Delhi, Feb 24: Tolerance is just not enough in a pluralistic society like India where love for each other is needed more, Cadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said on Saturday - the last day of a controversy-mired week-long state visit to the country. Capping off the trip, Trudeau, one of the most favorite liberal mascots in the world, told a gathering of nearly 5,000 Indian students and young professiols that people in the world needed to recognise everyone’s rights and not discrimite against them for who they were and what their backgrounds were.
“Diversity, pluralism, bringing people together with different backgrounds, different stories... that matters. Understanding that everyone has a right to a complete life lived in respect and love and acceptance is essential,” the schoolteacher-turned-politician said at United tions Young Changemakers Conclave at the packed Indira Gandhi Stadium here.
Trudeau said little tolerance would be wonderful in some places in the world. “Don’t get me wrong there. But tolerance is not good enough for a society like India or Cada. Think about it ‘I tolerate you’. Doesn’t exactly have a very nice ring to it. There is no religion in the world that tells you tolerate your neighbour. No. Love your neighbour, accept your neighbour, embrace your neighbour.” He urged the youth to strive for a world which is fairer to all and gives opportunities for all to succeed. He said by a better world he meant a place to live in where it “doesn’t matter where you are born, to what kind of a family, whether you are a boy or a girl, what your skin colour is, who you fall in love with.”
The Prime Minister said we could not afford to have a world where people “are led to silence or people are ignored”. The Trudeaus later had a conversation with Samyak Chakrabarty, MD X Billion Labs and UN Goodwill Ambassador for India Dia Mirza during which he stressed on sustaible development, saying a strong economy could not be built unless the environment is protected. (IANS)