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Here are the views of two important leaders of India, a Hindu and a Muslim on the
great issue of Secularism to which India is committed and Independent India is
being built up.
Jethmalani
The cup of national misery is overflowing.... The nation is made to suffer...
indignity and humiliation ... to tolerate the rule of mediocrities with
questionable antecedents and dubious propensities. Why must we helplessly watch
the total eclipse of the country's economic, political and international image?
These are troubling questions, calling for convincing answers. But the rulers have
no answer ... save on: the country has to be saved from communal forces, the
Hindutva brigade in particular, secularism is the answer to all our ills.
This atrocious answer should cause consternation to the sensible but ... there are
many who are willing to buy it.... Fifty years of uninterrupted secular rule
having produced this sorrowful scene, is it not a reasonable deduction that the
former is the most efficient cause of the latter? Far from being a solution it may
well be the problem of our time. Let us have a closer look and make a fresh
assessment...
We do not have to search long to discover the meaning and import of secularism. It
has been authoritatively defined for us by a series of judicial pronouncements of
the highest court. Its essence lies in a cluster of constitutional provisions, the
key ones being Articles 14 and 25... There is nothing ... to warrant the
secularist's oft-repeated cliche that religion be separated from politics. It is
like saying that in any kind of political action the fear of God has no place at
all. In a country where religion is the main prop of morality the cliche has done
an incalculable harm to our character.... The secularism practised for the last
five decades is a negation of the wholesome variety bequeathed to us by B.R.
Ambedkar and his brilliant colleagues. The handiwork of giants has been wholly
undone by the puerile pygmies who have managed to occupy their seats.
The pristine-constitution-placed emphasis on education and religious freedom was
subordinated to the needs of public order morality and health. No one shall quote
the scriptures as conclusive argument. No Shloka, Ayat or Commandment shall
supplant reason and the rational needs of the Republic. No unjust law will operate
even though sanctioned by Holy Writ. This Constitutes the essence of secularism
and yet repeatedly we have allowed obscurantism to perpetuate the most pernicious
forms of injustice.
For example, annulment of the Shah Bano judgement by legislation was a parody of
secularism...
The frequent communal riots, including the Masjid-Mandir strife, are the
manipulation of leaders who carry secularism in one hand and a dagger in another.
Secularism of the Congress has been no different from a vast scheme of deception
of the ignorant and innocent calculated to corner their votes, climb to the
terrace of power on their backs and then rob them with impunity.
The Muslims have been the worst sufferers. Their misery does not allow them to
forget Pakistan and any slight manifestation of pro-Pakistan feeling pushes them
further into isolation and occasionally expose them even to mayhem and murder.
Every atrocity is then laid at the door of Hindutva and parties that own it. A
vicious press and covertly bribed minority leaders help to sustain the mendacious
propaganda. The Indian Left, the ... Janata Dal, the Paswans, the Yadavs, the
Kanshi Rams, the Karunanidhis and the Chidambarams all join the chorus.' A Deve
Gowda takes over where Narasimha Rao leaves off. Fake secularism ... rules the
roost and the nation hurtles down the road to decline and fall. (The. Indian
Express, 26-12-1996)
Shahabuddin
In his long diatribe against the secular order as perceived by him, Mr. Ram
Jethmalani projects his basic contention that the root cause of all, that is evil
and ignominious in the present state of the nation is the principle of secularism
itself. He calls it fake secularism but nowhere does he spell out the elements of
genuine secularism. Secondly, he sees the suffering of the Muslim Indians but does
not pursue the matter to its logical conclusion. If the Muslim Indians have been
forced into isolation and voluntarily confined to ghettos where they live, happily
or otherwise, why should they be exposed to mayhem and murder? By whom? For what?
For the sin of alleged transcendent laps into pro-Pakistan feeling? For the sin
of the withdrawal into the ghettos?
Thirdly, he sees Muslims as a backward community. Though he pities them he does
not suggest any remedy. But there is no remedy for the persistent pattern of
discrimination except reservation. Why does not Mr. Jethmalani support this
legitimate demand?
This is where and how Hindutva seeps in. Otherwise, why should a liberal democrat,
a lawyer of international repute, a man of culture with a heart brimming with
compassion like Mr. Jethmalani gloss over the physical persecution and economic
deprivation of a religious community and the constant pressure for its religious
and cultural assimilation? What controls his mind and his thinking? This is indeed
what many of us perceive as Hindutva? This is where secularism pits itself against
majoritarian communalism and tries the best it can to ensure a fair share for the
religious minority and the protection of its life and identity.
No, Mr. Jethmalani, the secular order is our glory. It is the majoritarian
communalism which constitutes the grievous threat to our moral and spiritual
heritage and to humanist values. A nation cannot he part virtuous and part
vicious. Justice, equality and fraternity must permeate through the system before
it can reach the moral pinnacle and tackle successfully the demons surrounding it.
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