Doubtful intent

Author: Editorial
Publication: The Pioneer
Date: November 26, 2004

The Cabinet's decision to give constitutional status to the National Commission of Minorities (NCM) and extend the term of the inquiry into the Godhra massacre reveals the extent to which the UPA Government is willing to go in appeasing votebanks. There is a hint in it of the regime's uncertainty about its own longevity because there is poll readiness written all over. There was a long-standing demand for the abolishment of the NCM as it had outlived its original utility. The Morarji Desai government had constituted it in 1978 to assuage the fears of communities victimised by the infamous nasbandi campaign of Sanjay Gandhi during the Emergency.

In 1992, the Narasimha Rao Government converted it into a statutory body by an Act of Parliament to counter the emotions generated by the Ram Janmabhoomi movement. The commission is supposed to evaluate the progress in the development of minorities, monitor how constitutional safeguards are working and look into specific complaints about discrimination or deprivation. It is already vested with quasi-judicial powers. Now, it is about to be given the same status as the Election Commission, thereby making an NCM chairman a law unto himself.
 
This not only negates the composite culture envisioned by the founding fathers of the Constitution but also confirms the existence of two parallel monoliths-a presumed "majority" and a self-obsessed "minority"-within the Indian State. Jawaharlal Nehru was against the idea, as was Sardar Patel. The former had remarked during a debate in the Constituent Assembly that in a full-blooded democracy, giving safeguards to a minority leads to its isolation. Patel had said that it would be in the interests of all to forget that there is anything like a majority and a minority. Now, a Congress Government has effectively put India into a time warp as the rest of the world heads towards true pluralism.
 
While the NCM decision will disturb India's multi-cultural fabric in the long run, the one about Godhra is planned with short-term expediency in mind. At the heart of the rationale behind extending the term of the high-power committee inquiring into the Sabarmati Express tragedy is a desire to obfuscate a truth which the nation has already put behind. But, in its bid to push the frontiers of minorityism, the UPA evidently wishes to keep alive the germ of divisiveness. No right thinking individual has ever justified the vengeance that was provoked by the murder of 55 kar sevaks.
 
Therefore, the point sought to be established by reopening the wounds of Godhra defy conjecture at a time when the Gujarat Government is honestly pursuing the prosecution of all accused persons, regardless of religious background. Is this a part of the "detoxification" drive sanctioned by the Common Minimum Programme? If so, then it is already doomed because till date the UPA has only ended up tripping itself in such. The Government should contemplate hard on the flip side to minorityism and reverse these decisions because if put into effect, true secularism, which is already subject to debate, will be a dream that died.
 

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