New Delhi, March 24 (IANS) Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday met a delegation of leading Sikh intellectual voices from across the country at his official residence here.
The meeting witnessed freewheeling interaction by the Prime Minister with the delegation on diverse topics like farmer welfare, youth empowerment, drug free society, National Educational Policy, skilling, employment, technology and Punjab's overall development trajectory.
The Prime Minister, while expressing his happiness at meeting the delegation, said the intellectuals are opinion makers of the society.
Urging the members of the delegation to engage and educate the public and work towards making the citizenry properly informed, he emphasised the importance of the spirit of unity which acts as the central pillar amidst the wide and beautiful diversity of our country.
The Prime Minister talked about the significance of education in mother tongue.
"Efforts are being made to develop professional courses in Indian languages so that higher education in mother tongue becomes reality," the Prime Minister said.
It is learnt that the delegation thanked the Prime Minister for the invitation and said that they had never imagined that the Prime Minister of the country would engage with them in such an informal setting.
They also appreciated the continuous and multiple steps taken by the Prime Minister for the betterment of Sikh community.
A day after withdrawing the Most Favoured Nation status to Pakistan, India on Saturday slapped a 200 per cent import duty on all goods originating or exported from Pakistan.
A pall of gloom combined with anger and patriotic fervour was witnessed across the country on Saturday as the tricolour-bedecked mortal remains of the CRPF troopers
Questioning why proper security arrangements "were not" made for movement of CRPF personnel in Pulwama, he said a permanent solution was needed to end the repeated killings of jawans.
The last rites of four CRPF troopers from Punjab, who were killed in Thursday's terror attack in Jammu and Kashmir, were performed on Saturday as their remains were consigned to flames in their villages.
The Sikh religion prohibits devout Sikhs to remove the turban from their heads in any circumstances and forcing them to do it completely or partly under any legal obligation would result in hurting their religious sentiments
