Secular, where?
Before I get into this post, let me make some things clear. This post is not for people with a dichotomous thinking pattern; not for people who believe things based on their own perception without actually knowing the truth and certainly not for the prejudiced. This article is not for or against anyone. This article is for free thinkers who are willing to get the facts right before jumping into conclusions. This post doesn’t contain baseless allegations against any political party nor is it going to discuss the achievements and scandals of the BJP or Congress party. This post will address some misconceptions & possible reasons for the misconceptions and will tread along the thin line of neutral thought in a highly biased and dichotomous political world.
India being the largest democracy in the world has countless political parties in every nook and corner of the country. But on a national scale, only two parties, BJP and Congress exist. They may have some similar economic, foreign and taxation policies but let’s keep that aside for the moment and concentrate on one ‘alleged’ difference between them – BJP is communal and Congress is secular.
What does secular mean anyway?
Secular means not specifically relating to a particular religious body and communal (note that its communalism and not communism, both are entirely different) means of relating to a specific community.The definition seems pretty clear but the basis on which the political parties in India consider them as secular and branding others as communal, well that isn’t as plain as the definition. This article will attempt to rip down that basis to its barest parts and analyze it from the ground up so that you would know how this allegedly communal-secular divide came into existence in the first place.
Let me walk through a set of oft-quoted reasons that contribute to the communal tag of the BJP. Its time for the stereotypes to be broken and get the real facts.
Hindutva – This is the mother of all the reasons. The word ‘Hindu’ in hindutva is more than enough to associate the ‘communal’ tag with the BJP. A little history first. The term Hindutva was coined by V.D.Savarkar, a freedom fighter. Hindu Nationalism is often used interchangably with Hindutva although the essence of Hindutva was “cultural nationalism”. What’s the difference anyway? Well Hindutva doesn’t advocate Hindu superiority and persecution of other faiths – Instead it adresses people of other faiths such as Muslims, Christians, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains and the Parsis as culturally Hindu although they are religiously different. In simple words, though we are all separated by faiths, we are united by culture.
Hindutva doesn’t compromise unity in diversity. Its just a means of rekindling pride among the people for sharing the common heritage of India. Culturally same is just one of the tenets. Just like any of the philosophies like socialism, capitalism or communism, it also looks for evolution of society with the its overall well being the main surmise. Or in other words, it forms a synergy between mankind and society with ’social well being’ as the whole. One of the main proponents of Hindutva, M.S.Golwalkar believed that, quote –
“India’s diversity in terms of customs, traditions and ways of worship was its uniqueness and that this diversity was not without the strong underlying cultural basis which was essentially native. The Hindu natives with all their diversity, shared among other things the same philosophy of life, the same values and the same aspirations which formed a strong cultural and a civilizational basis for a nation”.
And again the term ‘Hindu natives’ is not people belonging to Hinduism but people who made India their home, for whom India is the native place irrespective of any class, creed or religion That’s what Hindutva also propagates, and it signifies gratification for being part of the “unity in diversity” ideology.
Yet, Hindutva hasn’t been accepted by many mainly because of the word ‘Hindu’ in it. What may be called ‘Bharatva’ is being called ‘Hindutva’ because it was the word Hindu that gave India its identity and in this sense, Hindutva is strictly a cultural and civilizational concept and definitely not religious or political. But still there is something in the word ‘Hindutva’ that doesn’t appeal to a large mass of people in our country. Well I would like to shift gears now and (just for the sake of comparison) and talk about ‘Jihad’. The utterance of the very word and you have people associating it with terrorism, bombs and militants. That the essence of the word ‘Jihad’ is completely façaded.
“Jihad is either a personal struggle within oneself to become a better Muslim or a true holy war,a war which is governed by strict rules and declared only by legitimate Koranic authority in defence of Islam”[1].
But we are a generation who believe in stereotyping, and have never pondered over to get the real meaning and as someone rightly said – “The only meaning anything has is the meaning we give to it”. We tag acts of terrorism as Jihad and terrorists as Jihadists. And by ‘we’, I mean everyone from the ordinary masses, the media, the Western world and of course, the Internet. What I’m trying to do is creating a metaphor between the level of abuse of the two words ‘Hindutva’ and ‘Jihad’. Please note I’m not comparing the two but only the abuse of these words and their lost essence. Just as it is difficult to accept the original meaning of Jihad (especially for the Western world), some sections of the Indian population have a great aversion to Hindutva without even realising its true significance and I doubt if they will ever accept it as it is without attaching their own meaning to it.
Association with RSS and Sangh Parivar – Let’s get this straight. The BJP is nothing but the political arm of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS). If it wasn’t for the RSS, there would be no BJP. Now these organizations are always in the news for all the wrong reasons. Any attack on places of worship of minorities is attributed mostly to the Sangh Parivar. That leads us to wonder, is it what they do? And many people presumably admit that they have nothing else to do except attacking minority places of worship. Truth cannot be farther away from that because the Sangh Parivar does a host of humanitarian activities[1a] they can brag about. Unfortunately, they don’t brag it and consequently all that goes unnoticed. The RSS is credited with helping relief works as back as 1962, during the Indo-China war for which the then Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru invited a contingent of the RSS to take part in the Republic Day parade of 1963. RSS also played a crucial role in the accession of Portuguese ruled areas like Daman & Diu, Dadra & Nagar Haveli[1b] in to the Indian union. Any calamity and you can bet RSS will be one the first organisations in helping with relief works. So the question of what job they do is answered but I still can’t figure why the attacks on temples in Mysore (April 2009), Ahmedabad (August 2008) and more recently the attack on Ganesha pandal in Miraj town (September 2009) and many such incidents isn’t reported by the mainstream media. May be it can’t create that sensation that the media loves to create. Fortunately, it can’t control the Internet and a little Googling will get you all the information you want. I don’t support attacks on places of worship but am just contemplating on how biased the media is. I think I’ve found the missing link. A Google search on “who owns the India media” will give you a considerable number of results and if the information is true, then the bias of media is self-explanatory. You don’t need to be rational but common sense would do.
Babri Masjid demolition – Do we need any other reason for branding the Sangh Parivar (including BJP) as communal? They demolished the mosque on the pretext of assuming that a temple dedicated to Ram stood there. Sounds like a pretty good reason but there was no ‘assumption’ – there was ‘evidence’ – not just one but several from reports of the Archaeological Survey of India as recent as 2001 to as old as a book written in the early 19th century by none other than the Grand Daughter of Aurangazeb. A more detailed account can be found in the book Hindustan Islami Ahad Mein(India under Islamic Rule) by Maulana Abdul Hai, a renowned Islam scholar and Historian. But that doesn’t grant the Sangh Parivar any authority to demolish the mosque and it was a political motive by which only BJP was benefitted. Absolutely yes. But on close examination one would know that the BJP wasn’t the only party to politicize this sensitive issue. Almost all political parties pounced on this to declare themselves as secular. You can be sure that vote-gathering in the name of Babri Masjid demolition is still prevalent. The Samajwadhi Party and Bahujan Samajwadhi Party have left no stone unturned in raking up this issue. When Laloo Prasad Yadav arrested Advani in 1990 in Bihar, he not only won the hearts of the Muslims of his state but also formed the famous MY factor (Muslim-Yadav votebank) which helped him till the last assembly elections. Looks like the Congress is the only one to be deserted. Well on short term, yes it was because the Congress was ruling at the centre during the demolition and it could have averted that. The failure of Congress in doing so angered Muslims in UP who switched loyalties to the SP. In the long term however, the Congress made sure that this issue could be used to uphold its secular credentials and it did help them a lot in every election campaign. The recently tabled Sachar committee report tells of various shortcomings of the government and the plight of Muslims remaining backward for 60 years and the Congress party is busy bragging about its so-called secular credentials. You may find this advertisement interesting.
The advertisement asks Muslims if they will vote for the party of Kashi Ram (the late BSP supremo), who had allegedly advocated building a toilet at the Babri site. The advertisement was printed in a handful of Urdu newspapers apparently by the SP. Doing this and the SP still remains secular, while the BJP is branded communal.
Oh I forgot to tell you. The SP is now demanding that Babri Masjid be reconstructed at the disputed site[2] – Yup they can do that. They are secular, remember? And no you can’t demand a temple to be constructed there because that’s communal.
Maybe Mr. Mulayam Singh forgot that many people want communal harmony there and so that’s why some Muslim Imams have advocated building a Ram temple[2a]. That explains why many Muslim groups ‘slammed’[3] Mulayam’s proposal to build a mosque.
The bottom line is that you can demand a mosque and be secular but if you demand a temple (even if some people feel it will promote communal harmony) then you cannot be secular. Isn’t that hypocrisy?
Gujarat riots – I strongly condemn any act of violence. One cannot deny the fact that Gujarat riots were indeed one of the darkest events in Indian history. Talking of history, as far as I can remember the Gujarat violence started when four coaches of the Sabarmati express was burnt and one of the coaches which was completely burnt was occupied by Kar Sevaks. The burning triggered the violence and everyone knows what happened after that. The issue is sentimental and sentiment gives the media a free hand to sensationalize and that’s exactly what they did. On the day the Godhra incident happened, there were reports of violence in that town. The English news channels were so focused on covering the violence and weaving stories out of it that it trivialized the shoot-on-sight orders handed out by the higher authorities.[4]
The Gujarat riots were always reported to be one-sided. The victims were Muslims and attackers were Hindus and as many as 2000 Muslims alone were killed in the state-sponsored violence which saw the whole of Gujarat burning down. These were all reports worked up by the English media during the time of riots. If the Gujarat riots were really one-sided, then the allegations of the media were also one-sided as even today one cannot find the mention of the Godhra incident but only of the Gujarat riots. All this had come down to things being separated into black and white as discussing Godhra incident is communal but the riots, that’s secular discussion. There were graphic reports that displayed pictures of violence in local Gujarati newspapers that fanned the flames of violence. People need to exercise caution in separating fact from fiction and not give in to emotions and sentiments in the wake of such violence.
Saurashtra and Kutch account for one-third of Gujarat and there were no reports of violence from those areas. We cannot claim the violence was one-sided throughout the riots because the areas such as Naroda Patiya, Gulmarg Society, Naroda Gram, Sadarpar were Hindu dominated while Himmatnagar, Danilimda, and Sindhi Market were minority dominated. These are not allegations but only excerpts from the news article published by India Today in 2002[5] [6]
The Gujarat police force faced the wrath of the public and more accusations came from the media which alleged that the police were giving a free hand to the attackers. On the contrary, the police did their job, though their effectiveness may be disputed. The same contention can be turned on the media because when the Godhra incident happened, the police were put on red alert and as many as 70,000 policemen were deployed across the state.[7] There was deployment of rapid action force, the CRPF on February 27th itself[8] and shoot on sight orders issued, curfew imposed in as many as 26 cities and of course the army was called in on February 28th itself.[9]
All that said, the official death toll tabled by the UPA government was not 2000 Muslims alone but 790 Muslims and 254 Hindus which doesn’t include the Godhra incident but only the Gujarat riots.[10] One has to accept the fact that the unofficial death toll will certainly be higher but terming the incident as a genocide and premeditated action against minorities is a over generalization statement derived from reductionism and not from deductions.
Post violence, the BJP won the Gujarat elections but was accused of using of this sensitive issue as a poll plank, reinforcing its communal tag. In the 2005 assembly elections in Bihar, Jharkhand and Haryana, RJD chief Laloo Prasad Yadav declared that the Godhra report (interim report of Banerjee commission) would form part of his party’s election plank.[11][12] In case you’ve forgotten, the RJD is a ‘secular’ party and discussion of such sensitive issues doesn’t make them ‘communal’. Isn’t that double standard? Looks like that doesn’t have any significance, when secularism is self proclaimed.
Varun Gandhi episode – This was the most hyped, reported, debated and sensationalized news in 2009, second only to the Swine flu outbreak in India. I can still remember the debates in NDTV and CNN-IBN and other TV news channels playing the role of prosecutors rather than journalists. Anyway on March 6th 2009, at a meeting in Dalchand, the BJP candidate from Pilhibit was alleged to have made a speech containing hate verses against the minority community. The Election Commission was quick to serve him a notice. The UP government on its part slapped the National Security Act (NSA) under which a person can be put behind bars up to 1 year, if he is deemed a threat to the nation’s security. Varun alleged that the CD was doctored but some excerpts from his speech has hatred and communal content.
“If any person lifts a hand against Hindus, or thinks they are weak, there is nobody behind them, then I swear on the Bhagavad Gita that I will cut off that hand”
Wasn’t this enough for the media? Well another excerpt from a speech made by D. Srinivas, the President of Andhra Pradesh Congress Committee.
“I’ll sever hands of those who point a finger at the hands of the minorities”[13]
Do you find any hate in his words? I don’t. The congress is secular, remember?
Srinivas claimed he was a “true secularist” and that his speech was meant to discourage communal disharmony, not to instigate communal violence. Congress spoke person Manish Tiwari said -
“Congress stands to safeguarding secularism. If he has used such words, I would say it’s a wrong choice of words” [13].
Wrong choice of words?
To be fair, the election commission did issue a notice to Srinivas and the media reported it, but it wasn’t debated or sensationalized nor did the media play the role of prosecutors in this case.
Then what about this statement by Imraan Kidwai, chairman of the All India Congress Community (Minority Cell), when he said that if he had the power, “[he] would issue a fatwa asking Muslims to abstain from joining the BJP”.[14][15] He didn’t stop there and went on to add that Muslims shouldn’t vote for the BJP for it would amount to ‘kufr’ (infidelity/blasphemy) for which he was issued a notice by the Election Commission.[15a]
Does the wrong choice of words statement appeal here also? Wait a minute; I forgot that the Congress was secular. Problem solved. I don’t find any communal statement here, do you?
Talk about secularism, you can’t forget to mention the communists. But the CPI (M) have an alliance with the party floated by Abdul Nasser Madani, one of the accused in the 1998 Coimbatore serial blasts which killed 60 people[16][17]. He was however acquitted, publicly denied all types of fundamentalist activities, and proclaimed himself to be secular.[18] Yeah you read that right, he proclaimed himself a secular, so what’s wrong if the CPI (M) forge an alliance with him? They are secular too, right!
Reality check – The secular credentials of Congress
1984 Anti Sikh riots – First things first, this was not a riot at all because riots happen (mostly) between two groups. This was a pogrom directed against the Sikh community as a revenge for the assassination of Indira Gandhi by her own body guards. The official death toll in and around Delhi alone was 2733.[19] There were as many as ten investigative commissions, the recent being the Nanavati commission in 2005 that inquired into the incident but many of the prime accused were either acquitted or not even charge-sheeted. Worse, some of the accused went on to become MPs and even ministers, who were from the Congress party. As with any riots, it is normal for leaders to condemn the incidents. But the late Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi was a little different when he said -
“Some riots took place in the country following the murder of Indiraji. We know the people were very angry and for a few days it seemed that India had been shaken. But, when a mighty tree falls, it is only natural that the earth around it does shake a little.”[20]
It may be natural if a calamity struck but a planned act of vengeance isn’t natural.
Uniform civil code – Article 44 of our constitution states “the state shall endeavour to secure the citizen a uniform civil code throughout the territory of India”. But we are not governed by uniform civil code but by personal laws which are in place since the British Raj. The personal laws differ for people of different faith for the same matter of concern. The people who wrote the constitution had a vision of a united India and were of the opinion that a uniform civil code would pave way for unity. The ‘secular’ parties claim that the UCC will deprive the religious freedom of minorities. This is another shallow argument because implementation of the UCC requires some changes in the personal laws of both the majority and the minority communities. There will be always opposition from the conservative sections whenever a change in their personal law is enforced. When the Hindu personal law underwent some changes, the conservative sections did oppose it. However the change was for the better. The reason for opposition of the UCC by the conservationist section of the All India Muslim Board is fear that their religious freedom will be deprived. However the people from the Muslim board fail to recognize that their strong opposition to any changes in the Muslim personal law is being used against them. They consider it as a defeat when they pave way for changes while sections of people who demand UCC consider it as their own victory when UCC is implemented. This has given rise to a deadlock situation. The self proclaimed secularists make maximum use of this dead lock and have caused further divide among people in the name of religion. That doesn’t end there – the secularists used this as a weapon for dividing the almost non-existent communal-secular divide as parties which support Uniform civil code are communal (no wonder BJP is communal) while the ones who oppose it are secular. A law of land laid down for uniting people is being used to feed the communal-secular divide. WTF!?
The implementation of UCC is still difficult because Article 44 is one of the directive principles, meaning they cannot be enforced by the court but by the State as one of the fundamental laws for the governance of the country. Even the apex court can only express regret at the state for not implementing the UCC. Given the various problems at hand, the implementation of UCC is difficult but not impossible. First of all, a change in approach is needed as the implementation of UCC is not a question of victory of the majority over the minority but the triumph of the constitution in bringing people together. Change of approach is to be backed with awareness and agreement between people of different faiths after dialogues.
Implementation of UCC was present in the manifesto of BJP. We all know what a manifesto is for. On a serious note, even if BJP had won the 2009 general election, it couldn’t have implemented UCC just like that because the Janata Dal United (JDU), one of the key partners in the NDA, had strongly asserted that their party won’t allow BJP to make radical changes like this one.[21]
The Congress party has said that a uniform civil code will not be implemented[22] even though the supreme court on numerous occasions has expressed its favour for implementing it.[23]
The ground reality is that there are sections of people and parties who oppose UCC plainly because of two reasons:
- The BJP being communal (in their own definition) is pushing for UCC,so that’s communal too.
- UCC is communal not because of the changes it demands in personal laws but because the BJP demands it.
Sounds stupid, right? But that’s the truth. If implementation of UCC is to materialize then people need to stop buying these stupid reasons and arguments.
The infamous Shah Bano case – This was one of the most controversial lawsuits in our country and it also paved way for the then Congress government headed by Rajiv Gandhi to pass the Muslim Women (Protection of Rights on Divorce) Act, 1986. What happened was that, Shah Bano [24] a 62-year old woman was divorced by her husband by ‘talaaq’, meaning a man can divorce his wife by saying the word ‘talaaq’ (divorce) in front of two witnesses (neither of the two need to be the concerned wife). Unable to support herself and her two children, she approached the court and after seven years the Supreme Court invoked section 125 of code of criminal procedure and directed the husband to pay alimony. But this was against the Muslim personal law and the conservationist Muslims opposed it while feminist groups welcomed the judgement. At a time like this the then Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi nullified the Supreme Court judgement and passed the Muslim Women (Protection of Rights on Divorce) Act which empowered the magistrate to order the women’s close relatives to pay for her support or the state waqf board in the absence of close relatives thereby relieving her husband to pay the alimony only for the period of iddat[25] and not forever. The act does sound fair though it seems like Rajiv Gandhi bends slightly in the side of orthodox Muslims but you cannot call that as appeasement because he cited this gesture as an act of secularism. Yeah secularism is a broad framework, it can encompass appeasement of conservative sections of minorities but the appeasement of conservative sections of a majority community is communalism. The secular framework is so broad but still it has no room for appeasement of the people belonging to conservative sections of majority community. But why? Ask the self proclaimed seculars, they will come up with another ridiculous reason.
Article 370 – This section needs a little help from history. I promise I’ll keep it short. What is India today was a collection of princely states and it was Sardar Vallabhai Patel who integrated these princely states with the then British India and cemented the foundations of modern India. At that time, Kashmir was ruled by Maharaja Hari Singh and chose to remain independent. But in 1947, Pakistan tried to annex Kashmir by force which prompted the Maharaja to hurriedly accede Kashmir to India[26] and in the process, gave the political authority to Sheikh Abdullah (founder of National Conference, Kashmir’s biggest political party). India came to the rescue of Kashmir and waged a war against Pakistan and ultimately a ceasefire was signed in 1949. Kashmir was to accept the constitution of India and as a method of fastening, the Integration Article 370 was passed in 1950 as a temporary part of transition. Even our first Prime Minister, Jawaharlal Nehru had commented that Article 370 will gradually erode and as Kashmir was only a temporary settlement as Kashmir but as time progresses, the integration would be complete. The purpose of Article 370 was to help in smoothing the integration. So what does the article say anyway? Well it summarizes the following.
- Firstly, Jammu & Kashmir state is one of the states of India.
- Secondly, none of the provisions of the Constitution of India including fundamental rights shall apply to the state unless assented to by the constituent Assembly of the state to be formed.
- Thirdly, no law passed by the Parliament even in respect of matters with reference to which only the Parliament can pass laws under the constitution, shall apply to Kashmir unless assented to by the government of the state.
- Fourthly, The President may by order specify that the provisions of Article 370 may cease to apply to the state of J&K but no such order shall be issued without the approval of the constituent assembly of the State.
The implications of Article 370 are very varied. The simplest being the government of India cannot enforce any law in Jammu & Kashmir without the approval of the state government. The union government can have its say only in matters related to defence, external affairs and telecommunications. Heck you cannot hoist the national flag alone in any part of Kashmir without hoisting the state flag. Well that doesn’t seem to bother us. Another implication of the Article 370 is that the people of Kashmir have dual citizenship, one as an Indian citizen and another of that of Kashmir. The property laws of Kashmir prohibit any citizen outside the state to own any land or property in Kashmir. Let’s face it, we are not affected by Article 370 by any means. But the original inhabitants of the Kashmir valley, the Kashmiri pandits were forced to leave their land owing to terrorism and are living as refugees in their own land. Now the act of driving out the Kashmiri Pandits was labelled ‘ethnic cleansing’. Now that brings us to another question – Why are the Kashmiri pandits, comprising mainly of Hindus, are specifically targeted by terrorists. I’m not saying that residents of Kashmir are not affected by terrorists. There are even reports of armed personnel targeting villagers of Kashmir. But my argument is to how can the atrocities against Kashmir pundits be called ethnic cleansing, while other such incidents are termed as riots and pogrom? Ethnic cleansing is euphemism; the real term should be Anti-Kashmir pundits riot or Kashmir pundits massacre. That said, the real reason is that Article 370 is a hurdle preventing the return of Kashmiri pundits to their homeland. The whole point of talking about Article 370 is that the debate over strengthening and abolishing it has been watered down to include the communal-secular divide with the parties lining up against the abolition as secular and the other side as communal. Can you believe it? Article 370 is a sensitive issue and any changes regarding abolition and maintaining it is to be handled carefully and not used as an instrument for debating the secular and communal traits of parties.
I leave the conclusion part to you. But still I would like to say a few words. The plain fact is that the secular-communal divide that you hear almost always in the media, newspapers and of course form self-proclaimed seculars are more of a myth than reality. There is no absolute division as such but an invisible bridge that is reinforced by fallacies and allegations that contain little truth. Every party is secular in their own definitions and creating further divisions by condemning the BJP as the communal by other ‘secular’ parties is unfortunate. I reckon it isn’t enough for people like Edvige Antonia Albina Maino,Raul and Bianca just to change their names to Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi to proclaim their secular credentials. And adding Gandhi to their surnames wouldn’t make them or their party any more secular. So is the case with BJP – just because their ideology is based on Hindutva, it doesn’t make them communal as such. True secularism just doesn’t exist in Indian politics and its time people realize that the communal-secular divide is not so ‘great’ after all.
By the way, the comment section is moderated; Free speech – Yes. Hate – No.
References
[1]-The Afghan, Frederick Forsyth, Page 22.
[1a]- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rashtriya_Swayamsevak_Sangh#Relief_and_Rehabilitation
[1b]- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liberation_of_Dadra_and_Nagar_Haveli
[2]- http://www.indianexpress.com/news/sp-renews-call-for-babri-masjid-reconstruction/543034/1
[2a]- http://i45.tinypic.com/120ow95.jpg
[3]-http://www.indianexpress.com/news/muslim-groups-slam-sp-for-raking-up-babri-issue-calls-it- opportunist/543609/
[4]- http://www.tribuneindia.com/2002/20020228/main1.htm
[5]- http://archives.digitaltoday.in/indiatoday/20020415/states.html
[6]- http://www.hindu.com/thehindu/2002/03/02/stories/2002030203050100.htm
[7]- http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/india/1386341/Hindus-massacred-on-blazing-train.html
[8]- http://www.mid-day.com/news/2002/feb/21232.htm
[9]- http://www.hindu.com/thehindu/2002/03/01/stories/2002030103030100.htm
[10]- http://www.expressindia.com/news/fullstory.php?newsid=46538#compstory
[11]- http://news.indiamart.com/news-analysis/controversy-over-rai-8702.html
[12]- http://us.rediff.com/election/2005/jan/20cec.htm
[13]- http://ibnlive.in.com/news/varun-virus-spreads-cong-leader-talks-hate/89659-37.html
[14]- http://www.in.com/news/current-affairs/bjp-files-complaint-against-imran-kidwai-of-congress-minority-cell-8489739-63749-1.html
[15]- http://www.webnewswire.com/node/450189
[15]-http://www.thehindu.com/2009/03/28/stories/2009032861041200.htm
[16]- http://www.indianexpress.com/news/terror-accused-mahdani-most-valuable-ally-for-left-cong/9248/0
[17]- http://www.thaindian.com/newsportal/politics/cpi-ms-new-ally-in-kerala-pdps-maudany_100169643.html
[18]- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abdul_Nasser_Madani
[19]- http://www.massviolence.org/The-1984-Anti-Sikhs-pogroms-in-New-Dehli?cs=print
[20]- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1984_anti-Sikh_riots#Rajiv_Gandhi.27s_remarks_and_later_apology
[21]- http://www.business-standard.com/india/storypage.php?autono=354757
[22]- http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1G1-107701780.html
[23]- http://news.indiamart.com/news-analysis/society-supreme-cour-1054.html
[24]- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shah_Bano_case
[25]- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iddat
[26]- http://www.jammu-kashmir.com/documents/harisingh47.html
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Tagged as bjp, congress, politics, rss + Categorized under Scraps, Opinions | »
Really ! Superb post ! Great work !
wonderfull,,, however indian media is more bent towards congress coz of which the media will keep indians in dark….
Great Job. It is the usual habit of the media to criticise the lost party and to corner them so that it leaves a permanent biased judjement among the mass.
Awesome !! Splendid work.
The article is an eye opener for many, I think. Well made. Good article & good/true message.
Indian media nowadays,believes in propaganda not in spreading reality.
i have also observed,they themselves think of them as prosecutors not as journalist (as stated by you)
.
its sad.
i myself can’t stand the congress-spokesperson,
he is such a moron.gosh!!
whenever you tune to tv interviews like on TIMES NOW etc. u can actually see his bodylanguage,he is so miserable and unhappy and frustrated down under..it shows up on his face.
Awesome job…I can imagine and appreciate the amount of labour you would have put to gather such exhaustive data to support your statements here(though it is rather evident without any need of such evidence if you are not so hard headed).
Regarding the talk about HINDUTVA i feel that the philosophy of Hindutva is not the same now-a-days as it was at the time when it was founded.The core meaning or rather principle of Hindutva has now been bifurcated into two viz. HINDUTVA AS A PHILOSOPHY and HINDUTVA AS AN AGENDA.
Hindutva as a Philosophy(as you have better explained in your article) was founded with the aim of uniting the country amidst its diversity and most of its proponents(although not all) still adhere to and abide by its principles.Hence Hindutva as a Philosophy was never,is not and will never be a danger to the unity and the secular fabric of the country and hence need not be viewed as a threat to other communities.
But, Hindutva as an Agenda is much more disturbing and is what is being propagated by the Secular(or rather pseudo secular or secular fascists or saviours of Indian Secularism or whatever you call them) organizations.It is this agenda which is being imposed(with the support of the highly corrupt but equally powerful and influential media) on the people which endangers the whole idea of India , as it aims not only to redefine the word Hindutva, but to use it to achieve the ulterior motive of dividing the public on this basis ,as its proponents have no real issue to concentrate on and hence harp on this subject time and again for their political and eventually economic gains. Its probably the Indian Politics’s equivalent of the DIVIDE AND RULE policy of the British Raj.
Its sickening and also frightening to see such Fascist ideas taking shape and people falling trap to such ill propagated agendas.
It was today that i saw one banner of a regional party consisting of reference to to the recently released Liberhan Report and containing inflammatory words aimed at stoking up communal passion and at the same time calling itself secular.
The joke is, i wonder whether the leader of this party has any idea of the subject which he is talking about or did he even go through the index of that 1000 page report(leave alone the report itself) before making such comments….Probably the Indian Politics has reached its abymal state…Ridiculous or rather Disgusting to see such people winning seats…..
Ultimate dude…gr8..Its eye-opener
Thank you all for your comments.
@Gurubhai
You nailed it. Yes The Hindutva agenda has been perceived as a threat but the problem is there isn’t many who can counter it with the Hindutva philosophy,so ppl tend to believe that Hindutva is communal and a threat to Indian unity. Ppl who know what Hindutva stands for,its time for them to make others aware of its significance and the original supporters and followers of Hindutva philosophy Viz the so called ‘communal Sangh Parivar’
aren’t doing enough to spread it as an philosophy,instead some of their actions are attributed to the agenda of Hindutva.
Hindutva as an agenda has been battered and bruised, that’s why we hear reports like- “Modern India rejects Hindutva, Young India aren’t interested in Hindutva anymore.”. But no one really bothers to see if the ‘Modern and Young India’ really know what Hindutva is and what it conveys. The popular opinion of rejecting Hindutva is widely propagated but the ppl who realize its true meaning care very little about this rejection.Its really going to hurt in the long run
I disagree to the point that media is ‘controlled’. I would say it is just owned by foreigners. If you see the face of state owned media (esp in South India) , they are completely biased and these English channels are far better than local channels.
Media is a bigggg business here.. and they trying to make their TRP ratings by doing anything… most of the time non-sense…
@Baski:
Thank you for the comment. I never said the media is ‘controlled’. My point is, I was contemplating on why the media is bias, and I came across the reasons for it in the Internet.Even if the information is true or not, the media is ‘biased’ one way or the other, that’s what matters.
Drawing parallels with the state owned media is something I don’t want to do because its something that is very obvious. Sun and Kalaignar TV praising DMK and Jaya TV praising ADMK, they do it very openly and everyone knows it why they are doing it. Even if someone asks them a question like- Isn’t your channel biased?They would acknowledge the fact they are biased.
On the other hand, the ‘English channels’ can’t come out in the open like the south Indian channels.They definitely won’t. They are neither going to accept that they are doing it for TRP nor are they going to accept their bias. That’s my point
Great work…but please please promte this page among not just bjp supporters but also among the not so political people who are dependent on just headlines for their knowledge on current affairs. Such people don’t vote and the thing is that they form a sufficiently large votebank in urban areas.
Thank you. Promoting among not so political ppl is what I’m trying to do,met with little success though.
Any ideas?
This isn’t easy as I thought it would be because I know many many people who boast of themselves in not knowing anything about politics. But when anyone tries to present them with articles or facts or truth about politics they simply aren’t interested in it. And yeah after a while they will start bragging about not having enough knowledge in politics.They are the ‘modern urban youth’ forming a large votebank wasting their precious votes.
@Gurubhai: As I kept wondering how to put what occurred to my mind, I was relieved to the core in the few minutes of reading your post. You have voiced my thoughts better than I could have put it here.
@author: Firstly, you deserve a grand applause for the detail home-work you have done. I’m definitely impressed. Coming to Hindutva, I agree that the intelligent Indian should understand the real meaning of Hindutva, i.e: Hindutva as a philosophy. If the BJP were to propose Hindutva in that context, I’d have been happy to spread the word. But BJP’s agenda is clear & obvious when they introduced Hindutva; in fact, why introduce the Hindutva at all in the first place?! Why didn’t the Congress or other parties bring in Hindutva first? I’ll explain why.
There is this lack of clarity as regards what Hindutva represents, which is being exploited by BJP, albeit inadvertently! Adopting this Hindutva agenda serves to establish the status of the party as a pro-Hindu group (remember pro-Hindu is still secular, coz its not anti-Muslim) This is the main reason I see. Remember that the meaning Hindutva assumes when its being projected by BJP before Hindus does not conform to the original essence of the concept. It merely is to fuel the Hindu passion among the ill-informed. Therefore, understanding Hindutva properly will actually distract principled supporters away from BJP- a paradoxical result which BJP would never ask for!
As regards the minority who are irked by this stand, they can be consoled by ‘explaining’ the true principles upon which Hindutva was founded! I ask again, why this ‘Hindutva’ word for secularism? Hey! its got the word ‘Hindu’ in it-that can buy a lot of ill-informed votes by sheer emotion. And by destroying Babri-Masjid, be it based on historical facts or assumption, they have demonstrated intolerance. They just got promoted to anti-Muslim from pro-Hindu, or should I say de-promoted!?
I agree that by citing various valid points, you have exposed the pseudo-secularism of other parties. But BJP is definitely non-secular, an overt one in that. And the Hindutva that BJP projects, is by any definition, non-secular.
@anandtimes:
Thank you.
To an extent, I agree because its obvious that BJP tries to ’streamline’ Hindu votes,but how to do it? Definitely not by creating the ‘common enemy’ scenario. If it were to create common enemy,then even the ‘well informed’ wouldn’t vote for it. So Catastrophizing Hindu interests is one way but that’s steering away from the ‘Hindutva philosophy’.
I really don’t know how to say, but you happened to read my mind and sometime ago I advocated for a change in BJP’s approach in an ‘online discussion’ and this was one of my points, the principal voters ‘may’ fall like a pack of cards. But my conclusion was if the BJP is to change its approach,then its their support base who must first change and also welcome the change in BJP’s approach. This isn’t very difficult because there are many out there who have become disillusioned with the one time invincible party,congress. So even if BJP does change its approach, it can expect a ‘non paradoxical’ result.
Yep, that’s what the ’secular parties’ are doing and you dare not call them as ‘communal’.
I don’t think intolerance would be the correct word because the ‘communal BJP ‘
is not on a demolition spree nor it is persecuting minorities. Now coming back to the Babri episode, the sentiments of a minority community was affected due to the demolition, a secular statement.
But on the other hand, there have been destruction of temples in the Kashmir valley (pre and post babri) of ’secular India’. Not many are aware of it, thanks to the electronic media but Internet to the rescue again. I agree on one fact though, that the destruction of temples in kashmir valley can be the acts of separatist or pro Paksitani groups. But the outcome of it is ‘the sentiments of the majority community (of India) is affected’ the irony is that its a communal statement. Oh God I just made a ‘communal statement’
.
Pseudo-secular, I really don’t want to use this because the minute you term others as ‘pseudo secular’, you become communal
My point is everyone plays the communal card, BJP is no exception but the popular opinion on branding the BJP (and Sangh Parivar) as the only communal party in Politics is just not correct, especially by the parties who self proclaim their secularity.
@Anand:
//its obvious that BJP tries to ’streamline’ Hindu votes,but how to do it? Definitely not by creating the ‘common enemy’ scenario. If it were to create common enemy,then even the ‘well informed’ wouldn’t vote for it//
Yes, that’s already what is happening now. Unluckily for BJP, they realized that fact a bit too late. It already has a non-secular tag attached to it. Which is the very reason why there is a need for an article like what you have written to re-orient people. And I wouldn’t buy it if you say that the SP, Congress or any other party is behind that tag. It is by BJP’s own devise that it ended up with the non-secular image, and yes, the other parties have made best use of BJP’s misadventures by adding fuel to fire!
Politics is a very tricky trade-one mistake & the other parties will gobble you up! That’s the sad fate of BJP today.
//So even if BJP does change its approach, it can expect a ‘non paradoxical’ result…//
Too far-fetched hope! I like to be optimistic too-so my sincere wishes for a grand come back!
// I don’t think intolerance would be the correct word because the ‘communal BJP ‘ is not on a demolition spree nor it is persecuting minorities.//
I apologize for that. I agree ‘intolerance’ was a bad word there. I was trying to say, a truly secular party wouldn’t think about destroying a place of worship. I should have used ‘insensitive’ rather- insensitive to the sentiments of Muslims. They could have just said “Yes, we believe this is the place for a Ram temple, but we as a truly secular party(which actually they were not), are ready to sacrifice our interests so that we don’t hurt your sentiments” That way, BJP would have earned the respect of Muslims, at least to some extent and at the same time, remain pro-Hindu. Then they should have educated the masses what they really mean by Hindutva & try to “streamline” Hindu votes (but they actually attached a different meaning to Hindutva then!! which they are trying to correct now)
//But on the other hand, there have been destruction of temples in the Kashmir valley (pre and post babri) of ’secular India’. Not many are aware of it, thanks to the electronic media but Internet to the rescue again.//
Destruction of temples by anti-Hindu forces will by no means justify the shattering of the Masjid by BJP. When someone tries to uphold destruction of those temples, then that party becomes non-secular too! BJP is trying to salvage whatever reputation (of secularism)it is left with by trying to wipe of Hindutva tag, redefining Hindutva etc. That puts it at par with the congress or any other pseudo-secular party. It should be remembered that the BJP had the audacity to justify demolition of the Masjid. That was blatantly non-secular. I would’ve been happy had the BJP stuck to that stand. Instead, it is now trying to be secular, which it is not. This pseudo-secularism is worse than frank communalism.
//Pseudo-secular, I really don’t want to use this because the minute you term others as ‘pseudo secular’, you become communal//
I used pseudo-sec, because unlike the BJP, which was openly communal during its early days, the other parties only claimed to be secular. That makes the former communal & the latter pseudo-sec, though none the better!!
Finally, if you are just trying to say that the congress is as bad, or even worse than BJP, then its a big yes from my side. But I still adhere to my opinion that the BJP very much deserves all the ‘bad-mouthing’, if you want to call that ‘bad-mouthing’, that is!
@anandtimes:
You got that right, that’s why I didn’t provide any concrete conclusion. But sometimes it doesn’t make any sense you know,when in spite of adding fuel to the fire (as you put it) and then brag about secularism, sheesh. I’ve had enough,so that’s why I wrote this article . True Secularism in present day Indian politics is nowhere to be found.
Could have earned the respect,but votes???? That’s too difficult a job.
Actually neither the BJP nor myself are justifying or dismissing the Babri episode as a payback . I just cited that to say, there’s a difference between the way,our country perceives the ’sentiments’ of the majority and minority . Sadly the communal-secular divide has crept into that too.
Pseudo-Secular is a word widely used and propagated by the ‘communal BJP’. So the seculars (pseudo seculars) dismiss this name tag as another ‘communal statement’ by the BJP. By calling the other parties as Pseudo secular, you just made a communal statement. Welcome aboard
That ‘Bad mouthing’ at the top is like the instant conclusion to make more attractive headlines
.
Who said only the media can do that?
But as always for each their own
Glad to have you here, do keep visiting.
Sreedharan from Sharjah said,
I came to your blog through Idlyvadai.
Many congratulations for an exemplary article !
Thanks for touching a very bold article and you did it in style too!
i beg to disagree with you on several matters. As i continue to read your post, i can’t help thinking that it is really one-sided. Definition of Hindutuva is really great and eye opener. I admire RSS’s selfless service during Tsunami rehabilitation ( of course not through papers, but through reliable friends)
RSS is having good philosopy But Is it what Sangh Parivar is doing in practice? Proof of pudding is in eating.. When the definition of Hindutuva dictates that all are culturally hindus, How could RSS tolerate when one of their organisations attack the place of worship of other culturally hindu’s faiths?
In the matters of Musjid, of course, there is strong evidence of temple. I agree.. you want to correct the foolish mistakes or designs of Moghl emperor. I understand, But u think what will be the consequences if everyone started correcting the history. Don’t you think it would be disaterous. We ll be back to stone ages.
In the matters of Varun Gandhi, Do you really believe that CD has been doctored. U should have quoted his other lines that all muslims should be sent to pakistan ( acorss the border). Will you accept it when Hindutuva desires Agandabharat?
I agree with you on J&K issue and Banu case.
but Godhra case, I am really sorry.. Modi’s action doesn’t merit your argument. I am of the opinion that He could have prevented what happened. but he didn’t do it either by design or by underestimatiing the situation. I don’t want his administration skills overshadow his sins. Both belong to different sets of scales to compare..
You are entitled to your view.. i am mine.. Thank You.
If you had read the comments above, you would know that I had seconded the comment on the bifurcation of Hindutva. The Hindutva agenda pursued by Sangh is being synonymously identified with Hindutva philosophy and there in lies the big confusion. So I attempted to clear that up.
The whole point of talking about the Babri episode in this article is to throw light on the ‘communal’ card played by the ’secular’ parties by raking up this issue over and over and over again.
Once again plz look into the context rather than just the statements. My question was why did the Media did not play the role of prosecutors in the case of D.Srinivas and Imraan Kidwai.
Actually I have stated that the efficiency of the police (implying the Govt) can be disputed but once again no one bothers to show the dispute the efficiency of the media during and after the violence.
Finally,my conclusion drawn is that every party plays the communal card,one way or the other.
must admit-very bold a attempt …. and such detailed analysis……. great work..!!!
very good job buddy!!!!
When congress try to allure minorities, it is not communal..and when BJP tries to fight for the rights for hindus den it is communal…
would like to add some more topics on the anti-hindu stance of congress:
1) in 2006-07 PM Manmohan singh said “Desh ki sampatti par pehla adhikar Muslims ka hai”…
2) haven’t uttered any word or tried to influence muslim orgs when they banned muslims to sing Vande mataram…Really this can happen only in India in which people refuse to sing National Song in so called Secular country and that too for religeous reason.
3) Congress government is trying to start ‘ISLAMIC BANKING’ to allure gulf countries to invest in India…dont know who will be benefited by this initiative…
You were also right in saying media is also hindu..bcoz in the case of Babri, they remember Babri demolition and not the riots after the demolition in which thousands of Hindus were killed across the country…contradictory to this, in godhra case, they remember post godhra riots and forgot the main event which triggered the riots..
good job..nice to see the facts being published….sum interesting facts abt d indian media r here http://raconteurkomarraju.blog.com…do read dem…..
Call a spade a spade and call the Congress communal in your forthcoming writings