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| Decline of the secular idea | | | Kuldip Nayar
The disconcerting aspect of Indian society is that tolerance and the spirit of accommodation are wearing thin.
How cruel is the coincidence that the birthday of Mother Teresa, who embodied love for Indian children, should have fallen in the same week of August when two Christian children and their mother were burnt alive by Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) men in Kandhamal district in Orissa. True, the naxalites have claimed that they have killed the Hindu mahant, Swami Laxmananda Saraswati, because he had indulged in crimes against the Christians. But the naxalites’ statement is taken with a pinch of salt. The Hindu extremists are said to be the real culprits.
Orissa is the same state where a Christian missionary Graham Staines along with his two sons, was burnt alive a few years ago. His brave wife is still working for the amelioration of the poor. The same state chief minister, Naveen Patnaik, was in power and even then he had failed to take appropriate action against the Hindu extremists. Christian missionaries have been imparting free education and treating patients in this area. But that has not made the Hindu extremists tolerant. They have been attacking Christians for decades for their evangelical work.
The Central government too has done very little to guarantee the Christians their constitutional rights. A Union minister has said that the Orissa government has once again failed in its job. Such statements do not bring chief minister Patnaik to book or punish the government which has failed in its constitutional obligation to protect the minorities. This time the state did not wake up for five days. The VHP spread its vandalism to other parts of Orissa. They destroyed and burnt houses. The Christian tribals sought refuge in jungles.
According to official figures, some 16 persons were killed and 558 houses and 17 churches burnt. The chief minister refused to hold an inquiry by the CBI because he naturally found more at home with his set-up. That the Central government failed to dismiss chief minister Narendra Modi in Gujarat after the pre-planned killings of Muslims is understandable because the BJP-led government was at the helm of affairs at New Delhi.
Why the Manmohan Singh government has not dismissed the Patnaik government cannot be comprehended. It is obvious that the Centre is afraid of the BJP which supports the Biju Janata Dal government in the state. Probably, the impending general election has enfeebled the Congress, which does not know how to react against the VHP and such other organisations lest there was an adverse impact on the Hindu mind.
Such fears reflect cowardliness. Had the state government been dismissed, the impression would have gone around that the Congress was willing to go to any length to uphold the rule of law. This would have rehabilitated the party in the minds of the people, particularly the minorities, and refurbished the country’s secular credentials which are at present clouded.
The disconcerting aspect of the Indian society is that the sense of tolerance and the spirit of accommodation are wearing thin. They keep the country together. Yet it is unfortunate that no political party looks beyond the next election.
There are not many credible persons left in the country to enunciate old values. The political parties do not realise that there is no alternative to pluralism in the country. Parties have an obsession to acquire power by hook or by crook. The government has been concentrating on the nuclear deal with the US in the last two years.
New Delhi has had no time for anything else. Yet, if the nation is to preserve the fundamental values of a democratic society every person, whether a public functionary or private citizen, must display a degree of vigilance and willingness to sacrifice. Over the years for many the dividing line between right and wrong, moral and immoral has ceased to exist.
If one were to look for the watershed for the deterioration one would find that all began with the economic reforms, the craze for acquisition. The government’s mania to maintain the growth rate of 9 per cent has led to the survival of the fittest. The poor and the weak, indeed, have been driven to the wall. The World Bank, the government’s mentor, has said in its latest study that India is home to roughly one-third of the poor in the world. The progress made since independence is that the poverty rate—those below $1.25 per day — has come down from 59.8 per cent to 51.3 per cent. This means that nearly 50 crore people still live on Rs 40 to Rs 50 a day. If India is to mean anything to people within the country, it has to go back to its original ideal of a welfare state.
In the same way, the measures for enforcing secularism should be implemented. Secularism does not mean that Hindus, Muslims, Sikhs or Christians cease to pursue their religion. It only means that religion will not be allowed to play a part in civil affairs. We cannot afford to let the traders of hatred to have their way. The minorities are the nation’s trust, not for consignment to the laboratory of hate. |
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