PTI KOLKATA EXPRESSING concern over growing intolerance among people of dissent, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Saturday favoured a rational discourse because narrow mindedness might affect creative instincts.

The prime minister noted that people are losing the ability to engage in rational discourse where different points of views are expressed.

“Public debate was often hostage to sensationalism. I sometimes fear that a growing culture of narrow mindedness may affect the creative, innovative and imaginative instincts of the country’s youth,” he said.

“I have been observing a growing intolerance among our people of dissent and opinions that contradict the prevailing orthodoxy. We seem to be losing the ability to engage in a rational discourse where different points of views are expressed,” Singh noted.

He said Indian civilisation has a rich tradition of preserving social harmony and promoting conciliation by accommodating different view points, identities and cultural differences.

“We should strengthen these impulses through the propagation of a scientific temper and an enlightened understanding of the meaning of freedom of expression,” Singh said.

Speaking at the inception ceremony as a general president of the Indian Science Congress Association (ISCA) on the occasion of its centenary, he said the theme for Congress in the city next year would be ‘Science for Shaping Future of India’.

“It is a theme that might have resonated just as well 100 years ago when the association came into being,” Singh said.

“I would signal the full support and commitment of the government to Indian science as it passed through a critical decade of innovation,” he said at the function held at the Calcutta University.

“Our problems are overwhelming and need scientific solutions,” he said.

“We have to use our abundant intellectual resources to find new pathways of development that use our scarce natural resources judiciously.” “We built world class institutions that created islands of excellence that created new knowledge. But we did not use science and technology in our development processes as much as we should have,” Singh said.

Singh also said the government was likely to formulate a new Science and Technology policy within a year to enable capacity building for meaningful development in a decentralised manner.

“Over the course of the year, we hope to formulate a new Science and Technology Policy that will update the existing policy document of 2003 in the light of a rapidly changing scientific environment in the country and the world,” he said. The prime minister said, “We did not use science and technology in our development processes as much as we should have. We did not build local capacities that could meaningfully address problems of development in a decentralised manner using this knowledge.” Singh on Saturday also laid the foundation of the unified campus of the Bose Institute in Salt Lake. The new campus will bring all departments and research activities of the Institute, founded by celebrated scientist Acharya Jagadish Chandra Bose, under one roof.

The unified campus of the Institute is likely to be fully operational within next two years, Institute sources said.

The Prime minister left the venue shortly after laying the foundation without making any speech. West Bengal state Governor M K Narayan, state’s Industries Minister Partha Chatterjee and Finance Minister Amit Mitra were present at the brief function. Union Science Minister Vilas Rao Deshmukh was also present.