Congress leader Husain Dalwai on Sunday welcomed Prime Minister Narendra Modi's statement on Gautam Buddha and said efforts must be one to unite the country and not divide it.
"Today the world fights extra-ordinary challenges. To these challenges, lasting solutions can come from the ideals of Lord Buddha. They were relevant in the past. They are relevant to the present. And, they will remain relevant in the future," the Prime Minister had said yesterday.
Welcoming the Prime Minister's statement, Dalwai said, "I would like to remind him that Buddhists were in a very high number earlier. They were doing very good work. However, they were tortured and thrown out during the time of Adi Shankaracharya. That's why they shifted to China, Japan and other places. The Prime Minister must tell Hindus that whatever happened in the past is wrong and must be condemned."
"He should make sure that people should not be divided but taken along," he added.
He also said that the government must listen to the people of Ladakh and check the presence of Chinese soldiers in the region without turning its eye, and take necessary steps to counter China.
( With inputs from ANI )