Secularism: meaning and memory loss

It was indeed astonishing, if not amusing, when a senior Leftist leader vehemently objected to the use of Panthnirpekshata in the Hindi translation of A P J Abdul Kalam’s last speech as President to the both Houses of Parliament.He attacked the continuance of the BJP mentality and in fact was ... angry about it. He may not have had a chance to glance through the preamble of the Constitution of India as amended in 1975. It was an amendment initiated and got approved by Indira Gandhi. It was no contribution of any one from Jana Sangh, RSS or BJP (which was not even born at that stage). Knowing how meticulous she was in all matters, and particularly secularism, no one can claim that she had not understood the difference between Dharamnirpekshata’ and Panthnirpekshata. Further, there are several senior political leaders from Congress itself who could vouchsafe how Mrs Gandhi held intensive discussions on the two alternative translations of secularism with academics, scholars and jurists before finalizing the Hindi version.The way the Congress party has responded to the current discussions initiated by BJP president Rajnath Singh is in fact detrimental to the interests of the Congress and beneficial to its main adversary, the BJP. The only inference one can draw is: who is interested in the party, self interest over rides every other interest. That indeed is a sad state of affairs in the national context.The present Congress party, which survives on its inheritance and consistently reminds people of its ‘great’ contributions in the freedom struggle, may be right on facts but is certainly not justified in expecting returns in terms of votes in lieu of it even after 60 years. Uninterrupted rule of full 30 years, 1947-77, could have been sufficient time enough to concretize the spirit of secularism that is consistent with the Indian ethos. It was also sufficient enough time gap to have initiated plans and programmes for the welfare of the ‘minorities’.Time and again, the longest surviving political party with a distinguished past and more distinguished leadership in the pre-independence days, has faltered on the issue of secularism in the post-independence period simply because it equated secularism as a tool to win over votes. No extent of denials can help it; people have seen it for all these years. Creation of UPA, as the flag bearers of secularism, has done greatest damage to Congress Party. It has benefited BJP beyond their imagination.

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