Author: A. Surya Prakash
Publication: The Pioneer
Date: September 25, 2007
Despite the alacrity with which it went into
damage control mode on the awful averments made by the Union Government in
its first affidavit on Ram Setu, the Congress is finding it difficult to put
a lid on the controversy because of the passions that this affidavit has aroused
on both sides of the political divide in the country. While the party has
the ability to crack the whip and enforce a gag order within its ranks, it
has no control over allies and supporting parties like the Dravida Munnetra
Kazhagam (DMK) and the two Communist parties. This is more than evident in
the irresponsible and provocative statements being made by Mr M Karunanidhi,
the DMK leader and Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu, and the leaders of the CPI(M)
and the CPI.
According to Mr Karunanidhi, who now comes
through as a completely unbalanced person, Lord Ram was "a drunkard".
"Which engineering college did Ram go to?" he asks the Hindus, because
they believe that Lord Ram and his followers built the bridge linking India
and Sri Lanka. Mr Karunanidhi has the potential to wreck national unity.
His statements could bring about a clash of
regions (North-South) and a clash of races (Aryan-Dravidian). Despite the
outrage in the Hindu community, Mr Karunanidhi is showing no signs of remorse
and the Communists are now springing to his defence. CPI(M) general secretary
Prakash Karat has argued that non-believers are entitled to their opinion,
just as believers are entitled to theirs. He is right, but before he gets
carried away by his own rhetoric, he will do well to read Chapter XV of the
Indian Penal Code which deals with "Offences Relating to Religion".
As we are all aware, members of the Dravida
parties and the Communists practice selective rationalism. Their rationalist
instincts are in full flow when they deal with personalities and events which
fall within the domain of the Hindu faith. But these instincts simply evaporate
when it comes to the mythology in Christianity or Islam.
This is not to say that rationalists ought
to have a free run. Indians are a deeply religious people and a few non-believers
cannot be allowed to disrupt national life through their disparaging comments
about religious beliefs. Non-believers are just a handful. The 1991 Census
data on religion shows that there were just 1,782 atheists and 101 'nastiks'
in India at that time. The first tables on religion released after the 2001
Census do not give us the number of atheists in that year, but even assuming
a decadal growth of 50 per cent, it would not be more than a few thousands
in this nation of 1.1 billion people. We must put an end to the tyranny of
this micro-minority before it causes any further havoc.
Meanwhile, the Ram Setu controversy has once
again highlighted the acute embarrassment that national parties like the Congress
face when they have to be in the company of political parties which have contempt
for 'bourgeois democracy', for those who hold religious beliefs and for democratic
centrism. Just as in the case of the India-US nuclear deal, a micro-minority
is out to arm-twist the Indian state and to subdue the majority. The Congress,
which is India's oldest party and the party of Mahatma Gandhi and Jawaharlal
Nehru, must stand up to these bullies if it wishes to preserve India's integrity.
It cannot explain away the company it keeps by saying that this is an exigency
of coalition politics. The assault launched on Lord Ram by its friends and
fellow travellers can tear the fabric of national unity because Lord Ram is
not just a religious figure, but someone who is central to the idea of India.
Lord Ram's influence, beyond the narrow confines
of religion, is best explained by Nehru, who describes the two great epics
-- Ramayan and Mahabharat -- as the "living force" which have become
"a part of the texture of a people's life". In The Discovery of
India, he says he does not know of any books, anywhere "which have exercised
such a continuous and pervasive influence" on the mass mind as these
two epics. Further, apart from the influence that these epics have on the
national psyche, they are critical to the integrative process. In Nehru's
opinion, "They (the epics) make us understand somewhat the secret of
the old Indians in holding together a variegated society divided up in many
ways and graded in castes, in harmonising their discords, and giving them
a common background of heroic tradition and ethical living. Deliberately they
tried to build up a unity of outlook among the people, which was to survive
and over-shadow all diversity".
Gandhi had said that he found "the greatest
consolation" from Bhagavad Gita and Tulsidas's Ram Charit Manas. "I
frankly confess that Quran, Bible and the other scriptures of the world, in
spite of my great regard for them, do not move me as do Gita of Krishna and
Ramayan of Tulsidas." Will someone in the Congress please read these
passages out to allies like Mr Karunanidhi who are invoking Tulsidas to justify
their blasphemous remarks?
Meanwhile, someone should read out Section
295 A of the Indian Penal Code to Mr Karunanidhi. It says anyone who, by words
or visible representation outrages the religious feelings of any class of
citizens "with deliberate and malicious intention" or otherwise
"insults or attempts to insult the religion or the religious beliefs
of the class", shall be punished with imprisonment up to three years
or with fine or with both. Section 298, too, prescribes punishment to those
who, through words or gestures display a deliberate intention to wound the
religious feelings or any person. Apart from these two sections, there is
also Section 153(A) under which a person who promotes or attempts to promote
disharmony or feelings of enmity, hatred or ill-will between different religions,
racial, language or regional groups or castes or communities can be put away
for three years.
Mr Karunanidhi's utterances attract this provision
as well because they bring about disharmony among different races -- the Dravidian
race to which he belongs and the people belonging to several non-Dravidian
races in northern, central and other regions of the country who revere Lord
Ram. Hindus must activate these provisions in the penal law and prosecute
Mr Karunanidhi if they wish to keep the faith.
