2 November 2006 – India
In presenting the 21st Indira Gandhi Award for National Integration to noted Hindi film lyricist and poet Javed Akhtar, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said that promotion and safeguarding the unity and integrity is a national cause, adding that India’s democracy was built on its civilizational commitment to pluralism. The prime minister emphasized that religious intolerance was alien to both the country’s culture and its constitutional values.