Monthly Archives: July 2012

Secularism – Most Abused Word In Indian Politics?

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Can a party which is responsible for slaughter of minority community (sikhs) in 1984 be called secular?. can party which intervened in supreme court decision and used its majority to change the law and do injustice to sha bano be said to be secular?. Can party which opened gates of RAM MANDIR (While case was in court) be called secular?. Can party which doubts its own pm and home minister and doubts encounter which took life of brave police man in batla house case , be said to be secular?

Can sp be called secular whose leader supported simi or kicked out one of its party man just because he took interview of chief minister of gujarat?. Can Communist be called secular when they try to woo Muslim community by rallying for religion based reservation?

What is actually secularism and how come we reached a point where bashing narendra modi became certificate of being secular?.

Secularism is the principle of separation between government institutions and the persons mandated to represent the State from religious institutions and religious dignitaries. In one sense, secularism may assert the right to be free from religious rule and teachings, and the right to freedom from governmental imposition of religion upon the people within a state that is neutral on matters of belief.  In another sense, it refers to the view that human activities and decisions, especially political ones, should be unbiased by religious influence.

So truly secular party or government wont interfere in court decisions in cases like sha bano case , wont pitch for reservations based on religion. Yes as unbiased secular government , it would surely be concerned of development of all communities and would find ways to include everyone in growth but wont pass laws based on religious identity of its masses.

Being secular would mean not tagging groups and acting based on constitution without worrying about vote banks. If some maulana says something which can trigger communal violence , he needs to be nailed and so has to be any sadhu who does similar things.

Being secular would mean not using religion in political statements like indirect threats as seen by so called secular parties to minorities (vote for us or RSS would ..) , neither using name of LORD RAM to gain votes.

BJP is accused of being communal parties but accused by whom?. By party which uses religion itself to get votes?. By people whose secular credentials come from bashing narendra modi while giving promoting jagdish tylers?. By people who fear to call osama bin laden a terrorist?. By people who try to defend simi and by doing so insult muslims , themselves?.

We need nation wide debate of secularism and election commissioner must ban all political party people from contesting who use religion to get votes in name of communalism or secularism.

Indira gandhi added word secular in our constitution. I wonder whether we needed addition at first place. India is one of oldest continuous civilizations and barring few instances like aurangzeb who betrayed secular ethos of India by imposing sharia in india , we have had more or less best conducive and secular environment in India where kings treated its citizens fairly and his decision where hardly influenced by religion.

If Kings , queens would have been like present day rulers , well communal riots would have been order of the day in ancient India which is home to major religions since long.

Let us look when did Christianity come to India…any guesses?. It came along with st thomas (one of 12 disciples of jesus christ). Jews came around 562 B.C. , Islam came in life time of muhammad. Buddhism ,jainism are faiths which rejected vedas and prospered .Imagine quran being rejected in saudi and still that faith can prosper..Possible?…doesnot look like even today forget in 8th or 9th century…Sikhism came much later and grew .Ahamadis too can practice their faith freely unlike in muslim countries like pakistan.

Point is that INDIA is tolerant country not since last 60 yrs , it has been since 5000 years and secular ethos are part of soul of India , we dont need to woo minorities to prove that or bash modi to prove that. We can pray to lord ram and still be secular , we can be atheist and still be secular.

In current times secularism is most abused word in Indian politics. Word has a world associated with it and in narrow prism of current politics , secularism has reduced to appeasing minorities . It is sad that such a vast and important way of thinking is reduced and used so cheaply..

 

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Blunders Of Mahatma Gandhi

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Mahatma Gandhi , the man who captured everyone’s imagination during his life time. The man who took jainism’s non violence, Lord Ram’s moral ethos , Jesus’s trust on humanity  and implemented it to mass mobilize humans in numbers unseen,unheard in quest of freedom of India.

What is significance of Mahatma Gandhi?…The best sum up of what it means was given by albert einstein which is as follows :

Mahatma Gandhi’s life achievement stands unique in political history. He has invented a completely new and humane means for the liberation war of an oppressed country, and practised it with greatest energy and devotion. The moral influence he had on the consciously thinking human being of the entire civilized world will probably be much more lasting than it seems in our time with its overestimation of brutal violent forces. Because lasting will only be the work of such statesmen who wake up and strengthen the moral power of their people through their example and educational works.We may all be happy and grateful that destiny gifted us with such an enlightened contemporary, a role model for the generations to come.

Generations to come will scarce believe that such a one as this walked the earth in flesh and blood.

There is no doubt in my mind about how gandhi was impact world in future. I dare say human race of future would be most influenced by gandhi because there lies possibility of what it means of being human.

My today’s article is not on greatness or impact of mahatma gandhi but blunders of man called mohandas karamchand gandhi. Mahatma means great soul but great soul doesnot mean being god and as human being Mahatma too erred and erred in big big way.

In democracy none is above criticism be it be b r ambedkar , mahatma gandhi , nehru or vajpayee. Today I am going to write what in my view are big blunders of mahatma gandhi. Blunder which perhaps changed course of subcontinent.

1) Khilafat Movement :

Begaani shaadi mein abdullah deewana… What the hell Indian Muslims to do with Turkey ruler also caliph and had one of biggest empire ever and one of great dynasties that humans have seen. Yup ruler was muslim and ottoman empire was perhaps greatest muslim empire in the world but still what it has to do with Indian muslims?.

Muslim league understood this but ali brothers didnt. They started the movement and appealed to mahatma who supported. It was example of hindu-muslim unity as per believers in movement but one man understood its consequences.

The man was Muhammad ali jinnah who opposed the movement. Deeply secular at that time he was concerned about mixing religion and politics and he warned mahatma against side effects of the same.

The movement collapsed with mahatma withdrawing after chori chora incident and ali brothers distancing themselves from it.

Promoters of Pakistan consider it as significant movement in formation of pakistan . Jinnah himself later used religion as tool for formation of Pakistan.

According to me it was blunder of mahatma . If mahatma wanted to bring muslims on board it should have been indigenous as well as something which equally effected Indians irrespective of fate. Salt movement which mahatma later did is example of something which effected all.

2) Not Letting Subhash Chandra Bose Head Congress :

Impact of this has been huge because it did set precedent of preference of authoritativeness over democracy. It was mahatma who inspired subash to join congress . It was mahatma who had huge influence on subhash and it was subhash who gave mahatma title of ‘father of nation’.

Inspite of they being close personally , both had lot of differences in their respective point of views. Nehru too had difference of opinion with mahatma but unlike nehru , subhash decided to resign from congress presidentship and form his own party and later leave nation to form Indian National Army.

It can only be speculated about how things would have been if subhash was allowed to continue as congress chief . Jinnah too in one of his interviews said that had he to negotiate with subhash instead of nehru , things would have been different…

3) Making Nehru As Prime Minister :

Now I differ from views which is becoming popular among many in recent times and that view is blaming nehru and even questioning his way of life ,his vision etc.

I strongly believe that nehru’s contribution in nation building has been huge. He did what first prime minister of India should have done and that is building institutes . IITs, IIMs, ISC, ISRO,ATIRA and even navratnas.

Then why I consider mahatma’s decision to make nehru as prime minister as blunder?. Mahatma by over ruling congress’s decision of making sardar patel as prime minister of India ,undermined democracy. The mistake he repeated after doing in justice to subhash.

This choosing prime minister is still followed as seen in congress of today. Now sonia gandhi is not even 1% of mahatma but following ‘I CHOOSE’ tradition , she chose dr manmohan singh.

In next opportunity she may chose rahul baba …This ‘I Choose’ concept is blunder. In democracy only votes can choose and that applies to political parties too.

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