New Delhi: With the recent Gujarat violence apparently in mind, President K R Narayanan, who lays down office on July 25, made an impassioned appeal for guarding the tradition of tolerance and asked the "Hindu majority" to speak out in the traditional spirit of the Hindu religion.

In his "farewell address" to the nation, he asked social and political leaders to nurture the "essential goodness" of the people, especially today when the poison of communalism has caused so much violence and hatred in some parts of the country.

While stressing the need to safeguard the unity of India and the Democratic order that has elicited a sense of wonder and admiration from the world, Narayanan said "at the base of our unity is our tradition of tolerance, religious tolerance and communal and social amity".

"My parting appeal to you, dear citizens of this proud and tolerant Republic of India, is to guard our tradition of tolerance, for, that is the soul of our culture and civilisation, that is spirit of our Constitution, and that is also the secret of the successful working of our Democracy and the secret of the coherence of this vast country as a united nation," he said.

Referring to his election thrice from Ottapalam Lok Sabha constituency in Kerala, which has a considerable number of Muslims, Christians and upper caste families, he said he had experienced the essential goodness of the people, their capacity to forget all communal, religious and social divisions of the society, when an occasion was presented to them.

The outgoing President quoted liberally from the speeches of Swami Vivekananda, Mahatma Gandhi and Jawaharlal Nehru to drive home the message of the need to uphold the tradition of tolerance.

"It is important for us today to introspect and realise what makes India's unity and democracy credible and enduring is this precious tradition of tolerance," he said.

The President regretted that the older general generation had failed to set examples and role models to the youth for social action in the service of the nation.

"If only we could release and set in motion the bottle up potential and energy of our youth we can change India, if not change the world," he said.

Narayanan also stressed that economic reforms through liberalisation and globalisation should not ignore the weaker majority - the scheduled castes and scheduled tribes and the women who toil day and night and make life worth living in "our homes".

He said provisions in the social and economic policies and programmes must be strengthened, expanded and implemented with sincerity in order to deal successfully with the condition of all the marginalised sections of society.

PTI