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75 Years down the Line 

Ram Puniyani

Indian Parliament spent two days discussing the Indian Constitution. While the Opposition leaders argued that the Indian Constitution has a large space for enhancement of the rights of weaker sections of society, and religious minorities among others, they are suffering terribly. The ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leaders within the Parliament and its ideologues outside the parliament, argued that all the ills of society and violation of Constitutional values began with Nehru (Amendment to stop hate speech), via Indira Gandhi (Emergency), via Rajiv Gandhi (Shah Bano Bill) to Rahul Gandhi (tearing the bill) have been the violators of the values of Constitution.

They say Indian Constitution has been based on Western values, a colonial imprint on the society; it is a break from India’s civilisation and culture. They also argue that the constitution and its application is the appeasement of Muslim minorities for vote bank purposes that has been done by the Congress Party.

The Constitution was the outcome of the values that emerged during the freedom movement. The understanding of civilisation is very different for those who participated in the freedom movement, those who stand for its ideology and those who kept aloof from the anti- colonial movement and bowed to the British rulers. While the freedom movement saw India as a plural nation with rich diversities, those who stood aloof saw the civilisation as a Hindu civilisation. For them, pluralism is a diversion and imposition by the Western-educated modern leaders.

Even the RSS forgets that what they call Hindu civilisation is undermining the contributions of Jainism, Buddhism, Christianity, Islam and Sikhism to this great Indian civilisation. Even the interpretation of Lord Ram, their major icon, is so diverse for Kabir, who saw the Lord as a Universal spirit, for Gandhi who saw Him as the protector of all the people irrespective of their religion in his famous: Ishawar Allah Tera Naam (Allah and Iswar are same). Jawaharlal Nehru saw India, Bharat Mata, in ‘The Discovery of India’, as an “ancient palimpsest on which layer upon layer of thought and reverie had been inscribed, and yet no succeeding layer had completely hidden or erased what had been written previously.” With great pride, he recalled the rule of Emperor Ashok, who in many edicts itched on stones talked of equal treatment for Vedic Hinduism, Jainism, Buddhism and Ajivikas.

This is the core difference between the RSS combine and its ideologues that see India as exclusively Brahmanical Hindus and those like Gandhi and Nehru as a country belonging to all the people. Indian Constituent Assembly mainly represented the stream that struggled against the British, the national stream, while RSS was a marginal stream sticking to ‘India as Brahmanical Hindu nation’. 

PM Atal Bihari Vajpayee in 1998 formed Venkatchaliah Commission to review the constitution. Dr KR Narayanan, the then President of India aptly remarked “It is not that Constitution that has failed us; it is we who have failed the Constitution!” 

Commenting on the current state of Affairs Justice Aspi Chinoy made a very apt comment. He said, The BJP being the government at the Centre and having an absolute and overwhelming majority in Parliament, sees no need to alter the de jure status of India as a secular country and constitution. Being in control of the state and its diverse instrumentalities it has been able to achieve its goal of undermining India’s secular constitution and introduce a hindutva-based ethnocracy, even without amending and altering the de jure secular status.   Pic courtesy: The Hill Times

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