CAN RELIGION BE THE BASIS OF A STATE?

Recent events like the Dadri lynching and the killing of Kannada scholar M.M. Kalburgi have clearly put the secular credentials of the country under question. Incidents like the Trilokpuri and Muzzafarnagar riots in the past have also dented the constitutional principles of the state. These incidents not only weaken the very principle of equality but also bring in a feeling of discrimination and marginalisation within the society. A statement by President Pranab Mukherjee, in October last year, underlined the importance of retaining diversity and tolerance. He re-stated the same opinion in his visit to Israel in which he mentioned that religion must never be the basis for a state. Israel, in which the majority of the people are Jewish has been at war against Palestine which started because of communal hatred. Recent attacks on people who consume beef has only aggravated the seriousness of the issue. This issue has sparked tensions among the intellectuals of the country with many litterateurs previously returning their Sahitya Akademi awards, concerned about the silence of the government over the rising intolerance.
“Despite being a Muslim, APJ Abdul Kalam was a great nationalist and humanist.”
The above statement came from the Union Minister of Culture Mahesh Sharma during an interview with India TV. Was it really necessary? Statements like these instil fear not only among the minority communities but also among the majority, as these statements trigger widespread communal riots which are tragic for the whole society. Communalism has taken the centre stage from the beginning of the new government’s tenure which was selected with the hopes of development and stability and it has succeeded to some extent but the rise of communal tensions have overshadowed the efforts of the BJP government, and Mr. Narendra Modi being the prime minister of India will certainly not want this to happen. He has launched many successful initiatives so far, such as the “Swachh Bharat Abhiyan”, “Digital India”, etc, and it is high time for him to act a little more seriously with regard to the issue of rising communal sentiments. Nirmala Seetharaman (a colleague of Mr. Modi) also put forward a controversial statement in which he seemed to be debating on the existence of communalism instead of opposing it.
The Modi government’s response to all these incidents has been lukewarm and disappointing. Instead of promising concrete measures, he blamed the state governments for the riots and avoided taking the onus. Using the same clichéd arguments of law and order and merely expressing sadness will not help the issue. Instead he should condemn the controversial statements made by BJP ministers, recently, and also acknowledge that communalism of the majoritarian kind will not be tolerated. The intellectual community of the country (especially those returning their Sahitya Akademi awards) is losing the faith they had in the government and the BJP has to take steps to stop this chaos and bring back the faith people had in the party, the faith that it would bring in economic development, not communal violence. Secularism is the backbone of the country’s constitution and what needs to be debated is how to separate religion from state instead of fuelling debates on communalism.

By-Tushar Dev