"...But the visible rewards of peace have also obscured the fact that the age of war is not over. We are in the midst of a fourth world war; the third was the Cold War, but it was very warm in Asia, Africa and Latin America till it ended in the 1990s," said the President, who is also the Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces.
"The war against terrorism is the fourth; and it is a world war because it can raise its evil head anywhere in the world," the President said in his acceptance speech in the Central Hall of Parliament. India has been on the frontlines of this war long before many other recognised its vicious depth or poisonous consequences, he said.
"I am proud of the valour, conviction and steely determination of our armed forces as they have fought this menace on our borders; of our brave police forces as they have met the enemy within; and of our people, who have defeated the terrorist trap by remaining calm in the face of extraordinary provocation," Mukherjee said.
Noting that the people of India have been "a beacon of maturity through the trauma of whiplash wounds", he reminded those who instigate violence and perpetuate hatred that "few minutes of peace will achieve far more than many years of war. India is content with itself, and driven by the will to sit on the high table of prosperity. It will not be deflected in its mission by noxious practitioners of terror," the President said.