Is India a truly Secular state?
secularism- stands for complete seperation of religion from matters of the state and a secular state does not discrimnate amongst its citizens on the basis of religion.
in july last year the whole world witnessed a hindu president of India being administered the oath of office by a parsi chief justice in the presence of a muslim vice president,a christian leader of the ruling party,a sikh prime minister ,a sikh army chief and a christian Air force chief.
this is incredible and is unique and the like of which is not seen anywhere else in the world.however does this make us secular?
my answer is NO,let me cite an example,6 of our states have had muslim chief ministers where the muslim population does not exceed 10% however in 5 states in india where Non hindus are in majority we have never had a Hindu chief minister,this example underscores our secular credentials.
the congress party and some other regional parties like the Samajwadi party of Mulayam singh and others pursue the policy of appeasement for votebank politics behind a facade of what i call pseudo secularism.for example there are Iftar parties which are held by almost all political parties at public expense during Ramzan all over India which is a good thing but why not Diwali and Christmas and Baisakhi and navroz parties ?are these communities and their festivals not important??my point is if India is to provie to be truly secular all religions and their members should be treated on equal footing,none should get preference over the other based on religion.this appeasement started at the time of Rajeev Gandhi in the infamous Shah bano case (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shah_Bano_case ).the present government has not only gone several steps forward with its appeasement policy but also adopting a virtual anti majority stand by having coalitions at the state level with avowedly communal parties like the MIM in hyderabad and the muslim league which requires that you be a muslim to be a member and the Assam based AIUDF.
on the other hand the BJP has quite a few prominent muslims amongst their top leaders such as Shahnawaz Hussain and Muqtar Naqvi but are branded as communal and treated with disrespect.
a haj house can be constructed at a cost of 22 crores in Delhi in prime property and Hajis will be given subisy and cheap travel but the government will not pay 2 crores to lease a land of 1000 sq.yards for Amarnath pilgrims or any help during the Amarnath yatra.
Narendra Modi is branded a Maut ka Saudagar(merchant of death) by Sonia gandhi and held responsible for the post Godhra riots that happened after hundreds of Hindus were burnt alive inside the Sabarmati express,yes as state head he can be held responsible but he did call in the army within 2 days and during army firing both Hindus and muslims died,the court took cognizance and several BJP leaders who were held responsible are now behind bars but what about her own husband Rajeev Gandhi who is responsible for the murder of thousand of Sikhs in 1984!
after the public assaniation of his mother Indira gandhi by her sikh body guard for her role in operation blue star,Rajeev while addressing a public gathering said that "when a big tree falls,the earth is bound to shake".this statement of his excited his followers and several top congress leaders like Sajjan kumar and Jagdish Tytler to go on a rampage and kill and rape thousands of sikh men and women.
even 30 years later the law has failed to bring them to justice and punish them,solely because the congress govt.has been in power for a majority of this time.
Prime Minister manmohan singh has said that Muslims will be given top priority on the resources of the state over all other communities to help them come out of poverty,however my advice would be to read the preamble of the constitution and ensure equal rights to all citizens of the country irrespective of caste or religion,only then would we be truly secular!
p.s-my piece would come across to some as being on communal lines but i would like to say that a majority of my patients are muslim and i have always treated all my patients based on the hippocratic oath i took when i became a Doctor,a good chunk of my friends are muslim as well and there is no ill feeling amongst us,the purpose of writing this piece was to advocate against the appeasement policies of the present Governement of India as this is leading to disrimination,divide and anger amongst the people.
secularism- stands for complete seperation of religion from matters of the state and a secular state does not discrimnate amongst its citizens on the basis of religion.
in july last year the whole world witnessed a hindu president of India being administered the oath of office by a parsi chief justice in the presence of a muslim vice president,a christian leader of the ruling party,a sikh prime minister ,a sikh army chief and a christian Air force chief.
this is incredible and is unique and the like of which is not seen anywhere else in the world.however does this make us secular?
my answer is NO,let me cite an example,6 of our states have had muslim chief ministers where the muslim population does not exceed 10% however in 5 states in india where Non hindus are in majority we have never had a Hindu chief minister,this example underscores our secular credentials.
the congress party and some other regional parties like the Samajwadi party of Mulayam singh and others pursue the policy of appeasement for votebank politics behind a facade of what i call pseudo secularism.for example there are Iftar parties which are held by almost all political parties at public expense during Ramzan all over India which is a good thing but why not Diwali and Christmas and Baisakhi and navroz parties ?are these communities and their festivals not important??my point is if India is to provie to be truly secular all religions and their members should be treated on equal footing,none should get preference over the other based on religion.this appeasement started at the time of Rajeev Gandhi in the infamous Shah bano case (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shah_Bano_case ).the present government has not only gone several steps forward with its appeasement policy but also adopting a virtual anti majority stand by having coalitions at the state level with avowedly communal parties like the MIM in hyderabad and the muslim league which requires that you be a muslim to be a member and the Assam based AIUDF.
on the other hand the BJP has quite a few prominent muslims amongst their top leaders such as Shahnawaz Hussain and Muqtar Naqvi but are branded as communal and treated with disrespect.
a haj house can be constructed at a cost of 22 crores in Delhi in prime property and Hajis will be given subisy and cheap travel but the government will not pay 2 crores to lease a land of 1000 sq.yards for Amarnath pilgrims or any help during the Amarnath yatra.
Narendra Modi is branded a Maut ka Saudagar(merchant of death) by Sonia gandhi and held responsible for the post Godhra riots that happened after hundreds of Hindus were burnt alive inside the Sabarmati express,yes as state head he can be held responsible but he did call in the army within 2 days and during army firing both Hindus and muslims died,the court took cognizance and several BJP leaders who were held responsible are now behind bars but what about her own husband Rajeev Gandhi who is responsible for the murder of thousand of Sikhs in 1984!
after the public assaniation of his mother Indira gandhi by her sikh body guard for her role in operation blue star,Rajeev while addressing a public gathering said that "when a big tree falls,the earth is bound to shake".this statement of his excited his followers and several top congress leaders like Sajjan kumar and Jagdish Tytler to go on a rampage and kill and rape thousands of sikh men and women.
even 30 years later the law has failed to bring them to justice and punish them,solely because the congress govt.has been in power for a majority of this time.
Prime Minister manmohan singh has said that Muslims will be given top priority on the resources of the state over all other communities to help them come out of poverty,however my advice would be to read the preamble of the constitution and ensure equal rights to all citizens of the country irrespective of caste or religion,only then would we be truly secular!
p.s-my piece would come across to some as being on communal lines but i would like to say that a majority of my patients are muslim and i have always treated all my patients based on the hippocratic oath i took when i became a Doctor,a good chunk of my friends are muslim as well and there is no ill feeling amongst us,the purpose of writing this piece was to advocate against the appeasement policies of the present Governement of India as this is leading to disrimination,divide and anger amongst the people.
