RELIGIOUS FREEDOM--AN UNFINISHED BUSINESS IN INDIA
RELIGIOUS FREEDOM AN UNFINISHED BUSINESS IN INDIA
Dr
M. D. Thomas
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Mr Barack Obama, President of the United States of America, in his historic address at Sirifort Auditorium, New Delhi, on 27 January 2015, declared on crystal clear terms, ‘India will succeed as long as it is not splintered along religious lines’ (The Hindu, 28 January 2015, p.01). This was a clarion call to all the stakeholders of the 'development' of India as well as to the custodians of the Constitution of India, which proclaims the supreme ideal of religious freedom for its citizens.
President Barack was addressing an audience of invited dignitaries and students, at the end of his overwhelming and much enjoyed visit to India, as chief guest of the Republic Day celebrations, in response to the warm invitation of Prime Minister Modi. He reiterated Article 25 of the Indian Constitution, which guarantees religious freedom, as a strong statement against fundamentalism and extremism in India as well as in U.S. 'Every person has the right to practise his or her faith as per choice, or no faith at all, without fear or discrimination', added Mr Obama. It may also be recalled that President of India, Mr Pranab Mukherji, in his speech on the eve of Republic Day, reiterated 'tolerance and goodwill among diverse communities' to be preserved with utmost care and vigilance.
Political circles corroborated to the statement of Barak Obama. ‘Without religious freedom how can we have development?’, asked Sharad Yadav, President of the Janata Dal (United). Digvijay Singh tweeted, ‘would Modi take his friend Barack’s advice and ask his friends in the VHP to shut up and request RSS chief, Mohan Bhagwat, to stop justifying ghar vapsi (religious conversions)?’. Congress leader Manish Tewari said, ‘I hope the Prime Minister listened to his guest carefully’ (The Hindu, 28 January 2015, p.10). All these observations raise the vital concerns of the people of this country and speak volumes to all persons in responsible positions.
Obviously, the above message goes, and has to go as well, directly to the ears of the Prime Minister Narendra Modi that majoritarian politics could lead to the splintering of the country. He is the executive custodian of the Constitution of the country, which is the most sacred book of its citizens. Even the smallest instance of the violation of Article 25, which guarantees freedom of religion in this secular country, has to disturb his sleep. While legitimately flying high with the romantic friendship with the head of the most powerful country in the world, the timely caution from Mr Obama is to be taken seriously, lest the country slips into really 'bure din', in the place of 'achhe din'.
It is a fact that Mr Narendra Modi reached the position of the prime minister through Bharatiya Janata Party. It is also true that he was an active worker of RSS before he came into politics and that the all out support of RSS has been a crucial element in the sweeping electoral victory BJP secured in the last general elections, whose prime ministerial candidate he was. All the same, once he got sworn in as the prime minister, he is the 'prime minister of all citizens in the country', may they belong to different political parties or communities of diverse affiliations. Mr Modi is the prime minister of even the 69% of the citizens who have not voted him or his party in. It is the fundamental right of every citizen and every community to feel that the prime minster is my prime minister and prime minister of the entire country.
In line with the basic concern stated above, a few months behind from now witnessed several cases in point that the prime minister seems to have failed to take note of and to address clearly and strongly. The splinter groups of RSS engaged in the fowl business of 'ghar vaapsee' or 're-conversion' of some Muslims and Christians, alluring them with an offer of five and two lakhs of rupees, respectively. A certain derailed mind floated the funny and vicious plot of making India free of Muslims and Christians by 2021, too. Besides, the RSS chief, Mr Mohan Bhagawat, added fuel to the fire by giving all blessings to the 'heroes'. No wonder, all the opposition parties cornered the prime minister and demanded a responsible answer from him. The prime minister proved his mettle by managing to keep his mouth closely shut. The aftermath of the entire episode masterminded by certain miscreants was observable. The social and secular fabric of the nation got further shattered, the distance between the communities increased and the warmth of the relations between communities loosened.
In the recent past, four attacks on churches in Delhi are on the record. It is construed that certain trouble-shooter elements from the extremist forces were behind the criminal act. As usual, the perpetrators are not identified, tried and punished. So far, there has been no effort to reconstruct or repair the damage thus caused, too, either by the government or by the offending organizations behind. How could such happenings be there in the national capital of the country, right under the nose of the prime minister? It remains a mystery that no word of regret or caution came from the office-bearers of Delhi or of the Centre. What was the provocation for the attack? Are the divisive forces given a free hand? Does it not hurt the sentiments of the custodians of the secular country that aspires to be the 'vishva guru'? Does it ever happen in other countries? How could one be so callous to see the thread of communal harmony violated to this extent? Who is supposed to answer these questions?
Besides, the Christian community in India, the world society as well, celebrates 25 December as Christmas, the birthday of Jesus Christ. It has been a public holiday, since time beyond memory. There was a fowl attempt from the HRD ministry of the central government to cancel the holiday and celebrate it as good governance day. All possible attempts were made to subvert the importance of Christmas by projecting the birthday of Mr Vajpeyee, too. Besides, neither the prime minister nor the president conveyed greetings of Christmas to the citizens of the country, whereas the prime minister did not forget to convey the greetings of Makar Sankranti to the citizens, just a couple of weeks later. As a matter of fact, the greetings do not add or reduce anything much as far as the respective community is concerned. And for that matter, it could be taken in a lighter vein, too. But, the question that arises here is, the custodians of the secular fabric of the Constitution are treating the citizens in a discriminative manner.
Moreover, over the last few months there has been lot of hue and cry about making Bhagavat Gita as the national religious Scripture, ganga as the national river, cow as the national sacred animal, etc. The majority community has already been allotted a large number of holidays that are dedicated to several gods and goddesses. But, considering what is important to the majority community important and what pertains to other communities unimportant is clearly a game of number. All the same, these things could be ignored as non-issues, if taken with a sense of altruism and humour. But, what causes anxiety here is the secular character of the Constitution of the country that is being shattered. The minority communities are relegated to the status of second class citizens in the country. Violating freedom of faith and religion and discriminating citizens in terms of religious belonging is going to be really disastrous. This is exactly the anxiety of President Obama, as well. This is a matter of serious concern to all well-meaning persons from all communities in India.
'Vasudhaivkutumbakam' is the most sublime motto of our country. Considering the entire society, the entire earth, as one family is perhaps the most outstanding sentiment in human life. But, while proclaiming the lofty ideal in the most elaborate and eloquent way, failing to consider the citizens of our own country as members of the same family, evidently, is a topsy-turvy of affairs, if not a hypocrisy. There is lot of scope for putting the house of our country in order, before crossing borders of our country. The high-handed practices of our country violate and terrorize the members of our national family and those ways need to be mended on an urgent basis. Before things get worse and go out of control and before other nations laugh at our petty and selfish ways and label us as 'uncivilized', it is timely to take the great lesson from the great friend of India, President Obama.
Yes, religious
freedom is an unfinished business in our country. The ball is in the court of
the Prime Minister, first and foremost. The citizens of this country expect him
to play and that too, play decisively to win and to win together. A winning
game is to uphold Article 25 of the Constitution of India and ensure every
citizen and every community in this country the freedom of his or her conscience
and faith, both in theory and practice. While advocating 'development' and
'cleanliness' strongly, and very rightly and laudably so, he needs to lay a
strong foundation for an integral development. Applying all measures to keep
the divisive forces under control is the cementing ingredient of that strong
foundation. As a committed citizen of this great country, with all my special
devotion to integral development, national solidarity and social harmony, I look
forward to good results of the auspicious visit of the American President Barak
Obama, in terms of ushering in a 'new culture of harmonious living' among all
the communities in India. The practice of the great ideal of 'sabkaa saath' is
the rocky foundation for the great development the people of India is aspiring
for, and not a house that is built on sandy foundation and is doomed to
collapse. Jai Hind!
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The author is Director, Institute of Harmony and Peace Studies, New Delhi, and has been committed to cross-cultural perspectives, cross-scriptural values, constitutional values, interfaith relations, communal harmony, national integration and social wellbeing, for the past over 40 years. He contributes to the above cause through lectures, articles, video messages, conferences, social interactions, views at TV channels, and the like.
He could be viewed, listened to and contacted at
the following portals – websites ‘www.mdthomas.in’ (p),
‘https://mdthomas.academia.edu’ (p), ‘https://drmdthomas.blogspot.com’(p)
and ‘www.ihpsindia.org’ (o); social media ‘https://www.youtube.com/InstituteofHarmonyandPeaceStudies’
(o), ‘https://twitter.com/mdthomas53’ (p), ‘https://www.facebook.com/mdthomas53’
(p); email ‘mdthomas53@gmail.com’ (p) and telephone 9810535378 (p).
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Published in ‘Indian Currents’(Weekly), New Delhi, Vol. xxvii, Issue No. 05, p. 42-43 -- on 02-08 February 2015
Comments
Post a Comment