It was indeed astonishing, if not amusing, when a senior Leftist leader vehemently objected to the use of Panthnirpekshata in the Hindi translation of A P J Abdul Kalam’s last speech as President to the both Houses of Parliament.
He attacked the continuance of the BJP mentality and in fact was pretty angry about it. He may not have had a chance to glance through the preamble of the Constitution of India as amended in 1975. It was an amendment initiated and got approved by Indira Gandhi. It was no contribution of any one from Jana Sangh, RSS or BJP (which was not even born at that stage). Knowing how meticulous she was in all matters, and particularly secularism, no one can claim that she had not understood the difference between Dharamnirpekshata’ and Panthnirpekshata. Further, there are several senior political leaders from Congress itself who could vouchsafe how Mrs Gandhi held intensive discussions on the two alternative translations of secularism with academics, scholars and jurists before finalizing the Hindi version.
The way the Congress party has responded to the current discussions initiated by BJP president Rajnath Singh is in fact detrimental to the interests of the Congress and beneficial to its main adversary, the BJP. The only inference one can draw is: who is interested in the party, self interest over rides every other interest. That indeed is a sad state of affairs in the national context.
The present Congress party, which survives on its inheritance and consistently reminds people of its ‘great’ contributions in the freedom struggle, may be right on facts but is certainly not justified in expecting returns in terms of votes in lieu of it even after 60 years. Uninterrupted rule of full 30 years, 1947-77, could have been sufficient time enough to concretize the spirit of secularism that is consistent with the Indian ethos. It was also sufficient enough time gap to have initiated plans and programmes for the welfare of the ‘minorities’.
Time and again, the longest surviving political party with a distinguished past and more distinguished leadership in the pre-independence days, has faltered on the issue of secularism in the post-independence period simply because it equated secularism as a tool to win over votes. No extent of denials can help it; people have seen it for all these years. Creation of UPA, as the flag bearers of secularism, has done greatest damage to Congress Party. It has benefited BJP beyond their imagination. It would be clearly established in the next general elections if the present mood of the people were any indication of the shape of things to come.
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Secularism, for the aam aadmi, in India is the practice that has remained ingrained in the culture of acceptance of India for ages. What happens when one attempts to understand the meaning and import of ‘secularism’ in an extended gathering of a Village Panchayat in a remote village of district Hardoi in central UP? Every village, every panchayat, every school has a majority-minority presence. No one ever talks in terms of Hindus and Muslims in their daily chores, certainly not the way select-secularists do. Every festival, ceremony and function is celebrated together. No one objects to a Hindu boy touching the feet of an elderly Muslim “Kakaji’ and no ‘fatwas’ are issued against a Muslim young person bending down at the feet of an elderly ‘Tauji’.
One can go on counting real life practices of ‘living the diversity in total harmony’. Having grown up in such an environment, one fervently likes to refer to this inherent strength of the Indian society before intellectuals and the politicians of the secularist variety. All one gets in return is a condescending half-smile indicating it being of ‘no consequence in the political context’! Several leftist intellectuals survive on highlighting only the negative instances and sporadic incidents, most often picked up out-of-context and distorted to serve their own vested interests. For shortsighted mundane gains, long-term national stakes are being given a go by! It must be conceded that they have succeeded in poisoning the minds of a good number of young persons who find themselves discriminated on religious lines.
A perusal of the Constituent Assembly debates would clearly indicate that but for the conditions created by the Partition, there might not have been any need for specific provisions that were brought in to the constitutions to reassure the minorities. These were unanimously accepted, included in the final draft of the constitution and created no problem for anyone. The problems began only when the politicians began to equate minorities with vote banks, doled out “never to be carried out’ promises and assurances. The worst sufferers are the Muslim community. Sachar Committee, too much is being made out of it, is just documentation, with data and figures, of what every one knew in this country. Over the years, Congress has certainly eroded its credibility as the protectors of minorities in a real sense. If the Party were sincere in efforts to implement secularism in its true meaning and spirit as practiced in India, it would not have gradually lost its foothold in the country. The tragedy is, it refuses to learn from experiences.
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People, without any political leanings and biases would like the Congress Party to answer whether it disowns the term ‘Panthnirpekshata’ as enshrined in the Constitution of India and intends to replace it by Dharamnirpekshata if it returns to power? They would also like the BJP president what BJP was doing on this front during the period 1998-2004” Or, it too was under pressure from its partners and had succumbed not to rise this issue like Article 370 or the common civil code.
It would do much good to all if the words of C Rajagopalachary, written in the Swarajya of June 4, 1966 were recalled: “To misunderstand the ‘secularity’ to which people think we are pledged. And to treat religion as untouchable is one of the many unfortunate follies our government has fallen into. It is not impossible or even difficult, to deal with a and include religions in a nation wide effort to make men truly religious, each in the way shown by his or her own religion, and add to it a spirit of understanding and respect for other people’s religion and way of life”
When asked why was he cutting the very branch of the tree that was supporting him, Kalidasa had the sense to make amends. The secularists are determined to damage the tree even if they perish in the process. It is time that the citizens of India launch a non-political campaign to generate awareness on how much damage is being done to the social fabric and religious harmony of India in the name of secularism which, by it self, presents a concrete, tested and trusted model of “living together, working together and progressing ahead together”. Amen.
(The author is the former Chairman of the National Council for Teacher Education. He was also the Director of the National council for Educational Research and Training during 1999-04. He has been very close to the BJP think tank. )
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