Indians must stand united, says Sadhguru at Dubai summit

Dubai - Sadhguru said national boundaries should have been settled a long time ago.

Indians must stand up as people of one sovereign nation to help the country overcome the conflicts crippling it today, said popular spiritual leader Sadhguru Jaggi Vasudev at WION Global Summit 2019 on Wednesday.

The Indian yogi, mystic and author - known simply as Sadhguru to millions of his followers worldwide - called for banishing the feudalistic mindset that "divides more than unites".

"If democracy has to work, the feudalistic mindset has to go. Everybody should be able to think for themselves. If you vote for a party as a caste or even as one family, that's no longer practising democracy," he said, during the second session of the one-day conference.

"We all tend to live for an identity and if it is an identity we are willing to live and die for, then let that be a national identity that integrates and encompasses all people in the country," he said.

Responding to a question on the Pulwama attack, Sadhguru said national boundaries should have been settled a long time ago.

"It should have been done when the boundaries were being drawn.with a little give or take. We should have settled the Line of Control (LoC) which these days always seem out of control," he quipped in his characteristic manner that's made him somewhat of a social media star in India and abroad.

He said that despite all the negativity that comes with violence, a whole lot of things have been achieved through it.

"For those who believe in it, it is not senseless at all. In fact for the perpetrators, it is violence with design, and if we do not stop or counter that, we are only going to let them fulfil their design," he added.

"Talking peace is a very fashionable thing. Everybody talks about it but when it is being declared by the proponents of this violence, then it is different."

While trying to assess the current situation, he said that when it comes to common people, nothing matters to them as much as their "economic aspirations".

"That's true for the region, for larger sections of the society in both India and Pakistan," he said. The leader underscored the fact that over 35 per cent of Indian children under five are underweight and almost 40 per cent are stunted.

When asked whether Article 370 - a provision in the Indian Constitution that gives autonomous status to the state of Jammu and Kashmir - should be abolished, he said that when there's confusion in the country about what is India and what is not, then it must be "settled".

"Anything and everything that comes in the way of integrating the nation must be removed. Article 370 leads to confusion right now and that needs to be addressed," said Sadhguru.

abhishek@khaleejtimes.com 

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