Revered industrialist Ratan Tata has expressed concern over the alleged growing intolerance in the country, dubbing it “a curse we are seeing of late”.
The Chairman emeritus of Tata Sons Ltd said that “everybody knows where” it was coming from.
"I think everybody knows where the intolerance is coming from, what it is. Like many thousands, millions of Indians, one wants to see a country without intolerance," Tata told reporters late last night.
Minutes before, he had spoken against the alleged growing intolerance in his address at the 119th foundation day function of Scindia School here, endorsing Congress leader Jyotiraditya Scindia's views on the issue.
"The Maharaja (Jyotiraditya) talked about intolerance. It is a curse we are seeing of late," the eminent industrialist said in his address.
"We want to live in an environment where we love our fellow men. We don't shoot them, we don't kill them. We don't hold them hostages but give a bit of ourselves and we give and take," Tata added.
Before Tata, Scindia in his address to the students encouraged them to be thinkers.
"We want you to be winners. We also want you to be thinkers... And the hallmark of a civilised society is debate, discussion and disagreement," he said.
The former Union Minister added an "environment of intolerance" was prevailing in the country today,
"An environment in which each one of us is told what to speak, what to hear, how to dress, what to eat," Scindia said.
A crackdown on dissent was against the progress of society, the Congress leader said, while hitting out at cow vigilantes.
Last month, a tweet from Ratan Tata’s account had created a storm.
A tweet by satirical account @realhistorypic was shared by Tata's account showed Reliance Industries Chief Mukesh Ambani and Prime Minister Narendra Modi together with the caption: Owner of Network 18 welcoming his employee to address people how (sic) cronies are going to halt inflation.
Tata later said that his account was hacked and a “spurious malicious was wrongly attributed” to him.
"Shocked that my Twitter account was hacked yesterday and a spurious malicious was wrongly attributed to me. This spurious tweet has now been deleted and my Twitter account restored. I regret the inconvenience that this malicious and wrongful action may have caused," he tweeted, a day after the controversy.
(With PTI inputs)
