Democracy works best in environment of pluralism: Narayana Murthy

“President Franklin D Roosevelt defined a true democracy as having four freedoms – freedom of expression; freedom of faith; freedom from fear; and freedom from want,” he said.

“A democracy works best in an environment of pluralism where every citizen has the freedom to practise one’s own beliefs and faith without imposing it on others and without hampering the progress of others; where one has the freedom to express one’s opinion responsibly, objectively, courteously, and fearlessly; and where one has the freedom to seek a better quality of life,” he said.

“This translates to your responsibility to create a just society as defined by the twentieth century American philosopher, John Rawls. Such a society embraces two fundamental principles. The first is to provide the strongest set of civil liberties and personal rights to every one of its citizens without exception. The second is its ability to tolerate new economic inequalities only if such inequalities ameliorated the situation of the poor citizens,” Murthy said.

“Democracy in India will prosper only if we create a mindset that highlights the commonality of our beliefs rather than our differences. Making India the best country in the world requires the best from every one of you,” he said, addressing the gathering of graduating students.

Murthy said that a civilized society is one where each generation makes the required sacrifices to better the life of the next generation. “By practising universal values of pluralism, honesty, discipline, hard work, transparency, accountability, commitment, decency, and fairness, you will ensure that the future generations will have a larger number of high-quality professionals like you coming from the rich and the poor, the urban and the rural, the powerful and the weak, and from all religions, castes, languages, and regions,” he said.

Murthy, now chairman emeritus of Infosys, also highlighted the challenges facing the country that need to be addressed.

“I want you to remember that India, despite her laudable economic progress of the last three decades, has unresolved problems in poverty, population, potable water, clean air, land availability for housing and agriculture, education, nutrition, and healthcare,” he said.

“The most urgent need is to reduce our population growth rate. While certain parts of India have been making decent progress in reducing their population growth rate, certain other parts have not paid sufficient attention to this important issue. The population issue has the potential to wreak havoc on our country in the next 20 to 25 years. Therefore, please emphasize the importance of reducing population growth rate in every gathering that you are a part of.”

Murthy, who was the chief guest at the event, was felicitated by Techno India University Chancellor Prof Dr Goutam Roychowdhury and Co-Chancellor Prof Manoshi Roychowdhury.

The university also conferred the Doctor of Letters degree on industrialist Ratan Tata in absentia.