In an apparent reference to riots in Muzaffarnagar, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Thursday said attempts are being made in some parts of the country to divide the society on basis of religion, caste and communities.

Hitting out at the RSS and BJP without naming them, Congress President Sonia Gandhi said “there is a danger from some ideologies, organisations and people who want to divide us”.

The two leaders were speaking at the Indira Gandhi National Integration Award function in New Delhi on Thursday.

The award was given to noted agriculture scientist M S Swaminathan.

“There is a need to follow the path shown by Indira Gandhi as never before. Today, in some parts of the country, attempts are being made to divide the society on the basis of religion, caste and communities,” Singh in his address.

The Prime Minister said it would not be wrong to say that India could achieve the Green Revolution due to Indira Gandhi’s leadership and Swaminathan’s efforts.

“It was based on this foundation that today we have been able to bring in Food Security Act,” he said, referring to the legislation.

Gandhi said “we have always kept national unity as our top priority. There is always a danger from some ideologies, organisations and people who want to divide us. We need to remember Indira Gandhi’s courage and her sentiments so that we can fight that fear with conviction.”

Lauding the public sector’s efforts that connected people of various regions in the country, she lamented that not much attention is paid to uniting different parts of the country and their people these days.

Talking about the difficult times of 1960s when India had faced foodgrain shortage and had to import foodgrains, Sonia Gandhi lauded Indira Gandhi’s efforts and the role of Swaminatahan in making India self-reliant in the agriculture sector.

“During that time too, there were people who would criticise and find faults and there were people who would not have trust. But despite all this, it was achieved well,” she said.

She recalled that among the challenges of independent India in terms of national unity was of creation of modern economic situation and institutions with special emphasis on agriculture production and distribution and development of agriculture techniques.

The Congress President recalled that when most of the states were facing famine, Indira Gandhi took a pledge to achieve self-reliance in foodgrains.

Singh recalled the late Prime Minister’s contribution in the social and economic development of the masses and said she wanted to take the benefits of development to weaker sections of the society.

 

In his award acceptance speech, Swaminathan said when India had to import 10 million tonnes of food grain, Indira Gandhi planned creating a food grain reserve of the same quantity.

He said food security helped India achieve an independent foreign policy. He said India’s help to people from the then East Pakistan and the nuclear testing were a result of its confidence it achieved through food security.

The acclaimed agriculture scientist recalled the transition of the country from that of a foodgrain importer to the one which helped Vietnam fight famine by sending food.

Swaminathan said while one the one hand India is a country where Jews and Bahais were never persecuted like in other countries, “aberrations were now setting in.”

He urged Gandhi and Singh to include the recommendations made by a Commission set up on farmers in UPA’s manifesto for the 2014 Lok Sabha elections.

Lauding Gandhi, Singh and Congress party for the Food Security Act, he said while files helped causes like the Right to Information, farmers help achieve food security.

The 28th Indira Gandhi Award for National Integration was given to Swaminathan (88) in recognition of his lifelong contributions to agricultural science, upliftment of the poor and national food self-sufficiency, the citation read.