The Hindu : Karnataka / Bangalore News : ‘Mauritius a role model for the world’

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Tuesday, Nov 03, 2009
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‘Mauritius a role model for the world’

Special Correspondent

It shows how unity can be achieved despite diversity: Malimath

— Photo: K. Murali Kumar

Towards harmony: (From left) Mukeshwar Choonee, High Commissioner of Mauritius in India; Justice V.S. Malimath, Chairman of the Karnataka Law Commission; and Justice V.S. Sirpurkar, judge, Supreme Court of India, at the conference in Bangalore on Monday.

BANGALORE: The former Chief Justice of Kerala High Court and Chairman of the Karnataka Law Commission, V.S. Malimath, has observed that Mauritius provides a perfect role model of communal harmony to the world.

He was speaking at a conference on the theme “Communal harmony — The role of intellectuals”, organised by the State chapter of the All India Conference of Intellectuals (AICOI) here on Monday.

Tracing the history and development of Mauritius, Dr. Malimath said that it was heartening to note how a people from different origins and cultures had laid a strong foundation for an ideal State. It showed how unity could be achieved despite diversity.

He said “there is no dearth of harmony in the rural areas in the country where the population of intellectuals is not significant. On the contrary, disharmony is abundant where the population of intellectuals forms the majority. Harmony could be achieved only through balanced emotion and not through sheer intellectual exercises”.

On the selection of 15 persons for the AICOI “The Great son of Karnataka” Award, Dr. Malimath said that the organisation should have selected outstanding women also for the award in compliance with the basic principles of women empowerment.

Deliberating on divergent individual and community values, cultural basics and outlook and the role of a nation’s tradition moulded by conglomerated customs, the Mauritius High Commissioner in India, Mukeshwar Choonee, said that communal harmony should be defined and achieved carefully with a vision in the larger interest of humanity. He was proud that his country had achieved that “wealth”. It would not be averse to any cultural, religious or any other sound values in public life, he added.

The Presiding Officer of the Cyber Regulations Appellate Tribunal, Justice Rajesh Tandon, said that several legal notions and Acts such as public interest litigation, consumer forum, Right to Information Act and Information Technology Act were the product of intellectuals’ efforts in the context of achieving harmony from various points of view.

Supreme Court Judge V.S. Sirpurkar and AICOI office-bearer Prakash Nidhi Sharma spoke.

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