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The Idioticity of the Words Secularism & Communalism In India

Apologies for such a long title and Greetings to all of you on the occasion of Baisakhi (Belated).

One of the most absurd debates and discussions held on any front or medium is about Communalism and Secularism in India and in Indian politics.

I say, in a country where Hindu shrines are managed and run by the Indian Government and Muslims get subsidy for their pilgrimages, why on this land, they mentioned Secularism in the Preamble of the constitution?
Maybe because it looked good and cool there? Because secularism would mean, complete disassociation of religion by the government.

Since polls are around in India, I will bring up the political debate here.
It's the most stupidest thing we do to debate on religious issues in relation with the Political parties.
Which Political Party except the Left I guess, can truly stand up and say I am Secular, in the true sense of the word???
The BJP will have no answer on the Godhra Riots of 2002
The Congress will have no answer as to why under the aegis of their party banner, its men slaughtered Sikhs in 1984.
The Samajwadi Party can or I bettwe say should never should explain why it has mentioned reservations for Muslims, in it's Election Manifesto for the coming election.

No one here, except Left I guess, can claim morality here. If you tell me that what Varun Gandhi may have really spoken those words, then I will ask you, Why is the Congress Party begging to Sikh Voters in Punjab to vote for a Sikh Prime Minister. I mean, is that the criteria to choose a P.M.? Set by a nationalist party? And you tell me that, this party is more secular?

True, we all can criticize the B.J.P for say, the Babri Masjid, but can we shy away from the fact that the in the Congress allies' list, there is a party called the Muslim League, and then there is the DMK, who does not want us to believe in Lord Ram?

So I say, this debate or discussion will be infinite, because every house here is made of glass, you throw stones and only shattering will happen. Nobody will win, and only India will lose.

In conclusion, I can say that it is the Congress, that is coming out to be the worst in terms of religious issues this election season. Modi has turned away to development and Advani wants a Ram Temple, but with consensus. Congress, first gets that clean chit for Tytler, when witnesses are speaking up openly against him in the press. Then they alot ticket to him and Sajjan Kumar, and when they take it back, they claim high level of morality or values. Then acting like true hypocrytes, they go on asking votes to Sikhs for a Sikh P.M.

I mean, it is high time, we drop down the word Secualrism. Who is secular here? Worse, how much it is mattering people?

Comments

Pankhuri said…
though it might appear a bit suprising..but today itself..on our sencond day of school we guys were just having a random debate with our economincs teacher about politics...(since we had nothing to do)..and gradually this random discussion rised up so very emmensely..that the teachers of other sections on the same floor had to peep inside our classroom to know what is really going on in there..as a conclusion even our teacher and mostly all of us..agreed with the same line...that is as follows..

"Its high time..that India should come about the words like SECULARISM and COMMNUNALISM..which are just destroying the country and nothing else"

Just saw the same caption and read your post..couldn't have agreed more..plus thought that there might be no harm if I share my tiny miny experience of the same :-))

cheers..!!
pankhuri :-))
Si_Lee said…
I have been busy with wrk lately but when i saw the title of the post in my mail i was pulled into reading it ..
True ! secularism should be thrown out of the window .. not from our country but it's politics.. secularism was and is meant for the people of this country, to imbibe and practice it .. not for parties to gain mileage off or decide their manifesto on.. for that matter even the pseudo secular congress promises reservations to muslims in its manifesto .. tell me how can a secular constitution allow reservation for a religion ?????

at the end .. it is the people tushar .. fortunately or unfortunately people do get carried away by these issues .. politicians exploit what they know will benefit their goals ... see you get a govt. you deserve .. in a democracy .. unfortunately democracy in it's most righteous spirit is not fair to everyone .. only the majority ..
cheers .. happy voting day ... if your constituency is in phase 1
Tushar Mangl said…
@ Pankhuri
glad to know that u ppl do something constructive work thr as well
@ Sid
No, my constituency going to come later
ANd what you say is so true
Suresh Kumar said…
Religions should be seen as a way of life. But unfortunately, our politicians have seen it as a way of increasing their vote bank.....

The problem is with the ego of the people. We people have egos that our religion is supreme and that there is nothing like that. Therefore the politicians find it easy to play with that emotions.

You have written it very good.
Pranay said…
Very assertively stated but I am afraid I do not agree with most of your views. Secularism is one of the most important stones of our constitution. It's all very well questioning it's need while we can but the fact remains that even after it being such a founding principle, there are people passionate about dividing people over religion and going to the extent of killing in the name of religion. What do you think if we had religious political parties openly flinging mud at other religions which is sadly taking place under a veil even now.
There are many things in which religion is important but there should be a distinction between religion as way of unifying people according to their history, culture, beliefs or even demographic and quite another using to spread hatred and intolerance.
It's all very well for one to condemn big events like the Gujarat Riots and the Sikh riots. But what people ignore, perhaps intentionally is that these are just incidents. What should irk us more are the small acts of constant divisiveness that are taking place regularly. I disagree with you that the 1984 Violence was communalism. It was plain and clear Criminal violence although against a particular religion. But it in no way base itself on a religious divide between two religions. The hindutva lobby has been crying hoarse for its superiority for over a decade now and if you just have to look at one or two incidents then so be it. I dont understand how you can call DMK not believing in Ram or any God for that matter as anything communal. It's their personal choice to believe or disbelieve because as we say it is a 'belief'. The Congress taking back their tickets was a rather embarassing and foolish mistake. But that is what it is. A political mistake. They are not Anti Sikh. What apart from that incident which again was a fall out of Indira Gandhi's assassination by criminals rather than previous hatred against Sikhism or for a particular religion.
And basing reservations or allowances according to religions is due to the economic and social status of the same. I hope you understand the difference between saying, this religion is weaker and needs help and saying this religion is under threat from the other religions and we should protect our religion at any cost or that my religion is superior to others and the whole country should be of my religion. I understand your sentiment and some points are valid but on the whole I think it is a bit skewed. I hope some of what I said makes sense.
Cheers.
Left is secular? They just forged an alliance in kerala with one called Madani who was accused in the 1998 Coimbatore bomb blasts. And the whole world know how close they are to the church
Si_Lee said…
@ pranay ..

Firstly .. no one contests the point that secularism should prevail .. its misuse for political reasons has been despised ...
secondly reservation is based on social and economic conditions of whom ??? everyone ..?? if so then fair enough but unfortunately the sad truth is even ambedkar had the common sense of saying reservation should exist for 30 years and should not be there after tht .. he said so imagining tht reservation would help one or two generations over these 30 years and later the future gen. wud not need it .. as India wud prosper .. Now Inia undoubtedly has prospered but reservation seems to be only increasing .. fine have it still if u may but as u said on socio economic conditions not religion and caste .. the moment you do that you are trying to favour a particular religion and that though NOT COMMUNAL is NOT SECULAR either .. It is pseudo secularism and the line separating it from communalism is very thin...
Thirdly ...
As i said before .. it is sad tht secularism in this country is limited only to constitution for most of the ppl of india .. it's a naked fact ... India aspires to be egalitarian but it unfortunately has neither social nor economic nor judicial equality... so we are where we are .. where development issues are not the main agendas in their speeches ... they are not major concerns of most ppl .. nw whatever be the reasons behind this lack of being able to choose the right parameters for electing a candidate... the fact is there is a dearth .. hence the chaos ... we get a govt. we deserve and we is not you and me .. not hindu muslim or christian .. we is all of us ..
Anonymous said…
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Anonymous said…
Nice blog. Only the willingness to debate and respect each other’s views keeps the spirit of democracy and freedom alive. Keep up the good work. Hey, by the way, do you mind taking a look at this new website www.indianewsupdates.com . It has various interesting sections. You can also participate in the OPINION POLL in this website. There is one OPINION POLL for each section. You can also comment on its news and feature articles.

You also get Live Cricket , News Updates, Opinion Polls, Movie Reviews and Mobile Phone Reviews in this website.


Kindly go through the entire website. Who knows, it might just have the right kind of stuff that you are looking for. If you like this website, can you please recommend it to at least 5 of your friends. Your little help would help us in a big way.

You can use the exclusive content of our website in your blog (those that are not taken from news agencies). Of course we would appreciate you you mentioned the name of our website in credits. Thank you,

The Future Mantra
Pranay said…
@ towards reclamation- Actually the Secularism-communalism distinction as well as the reservation according to social instead of economic and such reasons are different issues. Firstly talking about reservations just to point out what you yourself said,"India aspires to be egalitarian but it unfortunately has neither social nor economic nor judicial equality" The key word here being social. As much as we would want to wish it away the fact of the matter remains India is still socially unequal keeping the economic criteria out of the way. And it's necessary for those who fight reservations so vociferously to acknowledge the social inequality that is permitted by religion and cultural beliefs and say atleast something against those but then that is another matter.
Coming to what we are discussing, I agree with your second paragraph. It is us who are responsible. It is us who are ignorant. It is us who are easily fooled or scared. And that is why I believe it is necessary for the educated to stand against politicians and ideologies that aim to divide with fear and hatred. Using inflammatory speeches just to generate misplaced passion in the impressionables and garner a few votes. But the fact remains that there are veteran politicians who have made many a career out of this and this would not be possible without a sizeable communal population. And hopefully they realise the only people who they have to fight against such politicians.

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