Rajnath has a problem with term secularism
BJP president Rajnath Singh on Sunday urged Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to issue a directive prohibiting the constitutional use of the word dharmanirpeksh to prevent its misuse.
By TNN |
NEW DELHI: BJP president Rajnath Singh on Sunday urged Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to issue a directive prohibiting the constitutional use of the word dharmanirpeksh to prevent its misuse.
The BJP president, in his inaugural address at the BJP���s national executive meeting, which began here this morning, sought, among other things, to re-ignite the ``secularism versus communalism������ debate. The word ``secular,������ he said, had been woven into the Preamble of the Indian Constitution by the 42nd amendment way back in 1976, and its misuse began immediately by being described to mean ���dharmanirpeksh������ in Hindi.
���Neither technically nor politically the true meaning of the word ���secular��� can ever be dharmanirpekshta. The official Hindi translation of the Preamble of the Constitution published by the union law and justice ministry, is panthnirpeksh,������ Mr Singh pointed out.
By reviving the debate on the secularism versus pseudo-secularism, the BJP president was attempting to reach out to the Hindutva constituency. With crucial elections lined up in the next 12 months, Mr Singh, in a way, was reassuring the cadre that the party remained wedded to its core ideological concerns.
It was with this aim in mind that the BJP president also spoke about cultural nationalism, the abrogation of Article 370 and uniform civil code ��� issues which the form the core of the party���s ideological beliefs.
Referring to Dr BR Ambedkar���s description of the Preamble to the Constitution as its ���soul��� and that any doubt in any article should be resolved by studying the Preamble, Mr Singh said that there should have been no change to the Preamble.
���Fundamentally there should have been no change to the Preamble of the Constitution since it reflected India���s basic character and was an expression of the public sentiment at the time of independence���, Mr Singh said in his presidential address to the national executive.
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The BJP president made his case that the BJP���s brand of secularism is the one that is true to the Indian Constitution. Arguing that there is a difference between dharma, which is absolute and eternal values and panth, which is sect or belief in a specific form of God, Mr Singh said, ���one can say dharma is like the earth or land while panth is like different paths built over it.
Our mind can choose any path, change from one path to another, we can hold different views about the various paths but how can we ever get separated from the earth?���
Arguing that seeking to make India a dharmanirpeksh nation would be akin to separate it from its core, Mr Singh said that India���s consciousness is imbibed in dharma, as evident in its national symbols. ���If dharma is present in the National Emblem, National Flag, and in the supreme seat of Parliament then how can the entire establishment of India be neutral to dharma or be dharmanirpeksh?��� asked the BJP president.
Hammering home the point that it is the other participants in India���s political spectrum who have got it wrong all along, Mr Singh said that it is this understanding of India���s true nature as a nation that the term used in the Constitution is panthnirpeksh.
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Taking a broad swipe at ���secular parties���, Mr Singh said, ���the use of the term dharmanirpeksh instead of panthnirpeksh is not only incorrect, unconstitutional, against all the national symbols of India but also against the very basis of the real and perpetual ethos of our great nation.���
In what can be seen as a glimmer of the return of Hindutva in the political discourse, the BJP president argued that it is the use of the ���inappropriate��� word that has created an ���unimaginable��� level of ���pervasion and confusion in both politics and among the public... also hurts our identity and traditions���. Pushing forth the BJP���s ideological agenda, Mr Singh said that India has always been a panthnirpeksh or ���sect-neutral��� country. ���Throughout history there has never been any discrimination with anybody. However, India was never dharmanirpeksh, is not dharmanirpeksh and till it���s existence can never ever be dharmanirpeksh.���
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In a final blow to political formations that have claimed to be ���secular���, Mr Singh said that to make ���this dharmapran nation into a dharma neutral one is a deplorable attempt to destroy the actual consciousness of this great country.��� Appealing to Indian sentiments, Mr Singh said, ���at least after 61 years of independence we should try and come out of this colonial mindset. India needs to come out of the distorted Indianisation from the borrowed western thoughts because without appreciating our own identity and also by hurting our own identity India cannot become a proud and powerful nation of the 21st century.���
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