Secular India A Myth

Religion is surely a personal matter, in which politicians, legislators, and bureaucrats do not belong. Our current variety of insipid secularism has only led to abuse by our politicians, violence on our streets, and mischief in our courts.

The 42nd amendment to the Constitution of India inserted the word "secular" into the preamble thus making India a "secular" Republic. But is India truly a secular country?

 
The most commonly accepted definition of secularism is "separation of religion and state". By this definition, I would say that the India of today is not a secular country at all.

The Hindu majority has now risen against years of over-accommodation of the Muslim minority. This puts the country at risk of losing its tolerant and pluralistic democracy. India today desperately needs a new definition of secularism, one based on freedom of religion, equality before law, and separation of religion and state.The lack of separation of religion and state has eaten away at India’s religious amity. Governments engage in all sorts of religious activities and play favorites. 

Many of India’s founding fathers opposed  government involvement. They wanted to place separation of religion and state provisions in the Constitution, but were ignored. Without any constitutional restrictions on state sponsorship of religious activities, Indian secularism turned into a puppet for governments to do as they pleased. They began exploiting religious communities with special treatment, sops and populist slogans.

Today, the BJP wave among the majority community has shattered the Nehruvian concept of secularism. And for good reasons; Nehru’s approach was impractical in its denial of all communal identities, and it was open to abuse by governments. Now the majority is flexing its muscle and taking revenge for years of minority appeasement. This makes it all the more necessary that India adopt real secularism, lest the situation will reach beyond control, and allow chauvinism to take over India’s democracy.

The most current dictator-ism is changing names of the cities. Re-naming Allahabad to Prayagraj could just be the start. News reports bare the future disasters waiting to unfold. Political perverts’ narrow-mindedness peaking to such an extent that they do not wish to hear or see or even glance at any of the ‘Muslim names or even the Muslim sounding names’ of our centuries -old cities, making these politicians all too frenzied, their allergic reactions compounding by the day. Needless to say, this  will wreck the already dented and damaged system. 

To be a truly secular State, India must ensure equality under law for all its citizens. It must also stop State funding for all religious purposes and mandate that children are given a proper secular education. If people who claim to be secular also preach special treatment for specific segments of society based on religion they must rethink how India's secular fabric is impacted by this. Do these privileges strengthen Indian society or do they only increase the division in our already polarised society?

No particular religion is Bhartiyata. At the end of the day, India must become a truly secular country where the state treats all citizens equally irrespective of their religious beliefs. I am not asking for the majority community to receive preferential treatment - just that the State of India make no distinction between its citizens. Is that too much to ask for?

Art for cause

Mass molestation a Mass shame.

The New Year’s eve once against shamed humanity, when in the presence and “protection” of 1500 policemen, women were touched, grabbed, abused without restraint on Bangalore’s iconic MG Road.

There have been a spate of such despicable acts across the length and breadth of the country that have come to light in the recent days that seems to point out that there has been a serious discrepancy in the grooming of our generation next.

The cases of molestation by two bikers, caught on camera, of a working woman on a Bangalore street, biting the tongue of a burka clad woman by a molester in Bangalore and another case of mass molestation in Delhi’s Mukherjee Nagar by goons who even attacked the cops for intervening to protect the woman.

The brazenness of uncouth hooligans gets supported, when the police goes on a denial mode and says that “there is no evidence that it happened” and when, the likes of Samajwadi Party leader, Abu Azmi or Karnataka Home Minister G Parameshwara, suggest that ‘such things happen’ and advice women to wear Indian clothes and not to go out late evening unescorted.

So who is the culprit?

I feel that the typical Indian mindset of male superiority vis-a-vis female gender, which inhibits them to accept the fact, that today’s women are equally liberated, especially, financially and intellectually, is the root cause behind such appalling behavior of Indian men.

A few decades ago, the limit of influence of the women was restricted to the extremities of their domestic domain. The present generation of youth had mostly seen elder women folk tied down to the whims and fancies of the men at home.

The young girls of this generation, on the contrary want to break the shackles of male tyranny and become self reliant. Education and different forms of electronic media has enlightened them and they have optimally utilized the liberty provided to them by their parents, who, in many cases had only girl children or found the girl child more responsive then her male sibling.

The wide propagation of gender equality by media, NGOs and governmental institutions encouraged the girls of the present generation to carve a substantial niche for themselves in this male dominant environment.

The present day young men, especially those who have a low self esteem, accruing out of shabby treatment meted out to them by the environment owing to their inadequacies, exhibit their power (inferiority complex) by overpowering girls and molesting them.

The deliberate segregation of boys and girls at home and educational institutions right from their childhood, the rural-urban and the small town-metro cultural divide is also one of the major reasons for such incidents to take place. The mentality carried by the youth from conservative backgrounds may result in them going overboard when given an opportunity.

There is also a small percentage of girls who take this liberty for granted, especially those who had initially lived under a very tight control of their parents. Such girls are sometimes unable to draw the line and get caught in unsavory situations. It is always good to maintain your poise and dignity......the others will always respect it.

The society must evolve and not degenerate with time. If we see around us the mindsets are becoming more and more regressive rather than becoming progressive. The capacity to give space to other castes, communities and genders is progressively diminishing.

The flagging tolerance levels also acts as a catalyst for such abnormal antisocial motions.

Men have no right to tell what women must wear or do and ought to respect their honor and dignity.

There are a number of legislation's in place to protect the rights of women. However, we need to devise ways and means to implement these laws more stringently.

Surgical strike on black money.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi fired a direct shot at India’s endemic corruption with a surprise move on Tuesday to ban the country’s largest currency bills, starting the next morning.

The ban is intended both to curb the flow of counterfeit money and to take aim at terrorist organizations that rely on unaccounted-for cash. It is also expected to help the government clean up a system that has relied on cash to pay bribes and to avoid taxes.

But the announcemet led to an immediate upheaval in the country. Abolishing the current version of the 500 and 1,000 rupee notes will effectively remove 80 percent of the currency in circulation.

A.T.M.s around the country were overrun Tuesday night with people confused about the plan and trying to complete financial transactions before the machines closed the following day. In some places, hundreds stood in line in front of a single A.T.M.

Cash is so prevalent in Indian society that the ban came with a 72-hour exception for paying for hospital bills and airline tickets. 

“It will be disruptive, it will be inconvenient, but in the medium term, it will be very good.”

Mr. Modi was elected in 2014 after running on an anticorruption platform that included a pledge to fight unaccounted-for cash, also referred to as “black money.” The results have been mixed.

Under one tax amnesty program, Indians owned up this year to about $10 billion in income on which taxes had not been paid, the Modi administration said last month. But another effort encouraging people to declare hidden assets and income abroad met with limited success.

“There’s a perception that whatever he has done on the corruption front is not enough,” said Harsh Pant, a professor of international relations at King’s College London, noting that elections in India’s most populous state, Uttar Pradesh, were expected to take place early next year. “Politically he probably felt he needed to do something more visible.”

While the currency plan had been under discussion for some time, few had expected such a bold step. Mr. Modi kept the decision quiet to prevent holders of vast amounts of unaccounted-for cash from outwitting the ban.

The problems run deep.But it is unclear what the full impact of the ban will be. Studies have shown that corruption can be curtailed by reducing cash transactions, but it is unlikely to be eliminated by the move.Even so, the ban on large bills is very likely to hasten India’s transition away from cash. About 78 percent of transactions in India last year were made in cash, compared with 20 percent to 25 percent in the United States, Britain and other countries, according to a report by Google India and the Boston Consulting Group.

The new policy puts India at the “leading edge of countries restricting the use of high-denomination currency notes that are now seen as mostly fueling illegal activities rather than legitimate commerce,” said Eswar S. Prasad, a trade policy professor at Cornell.

As the ban works its way through the system, the real estate market could face a shock.

Indian politicians, among others, not only hold vast amounts of cash, but they are also heavily invested in real estate, where it has historically been easy to convert unaccounted-for money into legal currency. A large percentage of real estate deals are done in unaccounted for cash.

Without that cash, real estate prices could fall sharply. And developers holding large amounts of unaccounted for cash would find it suddenly rendered virtually useless, making it hard for them to pay their bills and finish their projects.

For some time, people will be able to exchange only 4,000 rupees a day. People holding vast sums of unaccounted for cash will find it hard to exchange the money at banks because they will need to explain where they got it, risking tax investigations, experts said

The honest citizen has to face some inconvenience and difficulties but is willing to sacrifice for the cause of nation. Lets just hope it is not just a political play to win more elections but to build a progressive nation.