Also high in the air is word SECULAR floating around and every other party or front is promising to give the public a secular Govt. Now wasn't that the basic agenda when India became a Republic way back in 1950 and part of the constitution?
So what is Secular in the real Indian sense. I would say it is something not to do with Religion only but rather Secular in indian terms means irrespective of Religion, Caste and Creed. I hope you agree.
So lets have a look at the so called secular image of the most important parties and see if there is really something Secular to discusss about in this election or is it just a gimmick played by the parties.
- Congress (I): the oldest party and the one in power for the most number of years has a few black marks on its secular image contrary to what is visible. The most important issue was that of the 1984 riots when there were mass killing of sikhs. Also even after 1984 as reported by newspapers and also by sikh sentiments that during the LTTE issue, troops mostly from Punjab and Sikh regiments were deployed as Peace Keeping Force to fight against the LTTE. This ghost is still chasing the congress since and recently it was fuelled further just before the elections in spite of the PM candidate being a Sikh. Congress in spite of all thise still enjoys the image of a secular party.
- BJP: the second largest part in India. It has the unsecular black marks during the Babri Masjid demolition and the Gujarat riots post Godhra incident in 2002. All other parties are targeting BJP for being non secular in spite of BJP proving them wrong during its 5 years tenure under Vajpayee. But today anything un-secular refers to as anything related to BJP and its allies by other political parties, more of a propaganda to play down BJPs secular credentials and this is also aided by the activities of the more extremist elements.
- BSP, SP, RJD etc: All these regional parties from UP and Bihar in spite of having a secular image are actually very highly Caste based parties some catering to the dalits, while some to the yadavs, thakurs etc. So in the true indian sense they are also fail the fully Secular test.
- Left Parties: these parties though this time are blowing the secular trumpet, they have nothing to do with Secularism or Communalism, they have only to do with Socialism and to bring out issues which hinder development or may be help development depending on the issue itself. :)
- Other regional parties: A few of them have been more or less secular - Ex-TDP, BJD, JDS etc but again mostly the regional parties DMK, AIMDK, Shiv Sena etc are all either caste or religion based.
So I would say the SECULAR stress in this election is just a farce, a gimmick played by political parties who can exploit the situation in getting allies post election to make alliances in the name of secularism so that they are part of the ruling Govt and enjoy the pay offs given to them by this word.
Also to mention all these years irrespective of any party ruling, some where or the other the issues of religion, caste, creed have cropped up and the political parties be it ruling or in opposition have played very oppurtunistic roles to exploit the same both at the center and also at the state levels.
The only people Secular are the common people of India who irrespective of their religion, caste, creed etc carry on with their normal lives and particularly secular are the educated youth, since the are last 2-3 decades who have been watching all this.
But slowly though, things are changing and the people are fed up with the caste and religion issues and they are more inclined towards issues of development and infrastructure to be cattered to first. Also since the last decade with the media playing a very large role more and more people are getting aware of not only the present situation but also the goof ups done in the past.
People have started opposing wrong activities vocally and anyone who does it for mere propaganda comes in to limelight by the media (by sting operations etc) and is strongly opposed by the public. Also there are sms and Internet polls conducted and this shows the people are watching and participating. Also a few campaigns have started on the these issues as already stated in my earlier posts:
- Baba Ramdevji's Bharat Swabhimaan being the biggest campaign
- Pink Chaddi campaign against moral policing etc
- Lead india to remove criminals from contesting
- The jaago re campaign - also driven by youth
All this needs more penetration in to the smaller towns and rural areas where something on a SECULAR front too has to come in a big way.
On the contrary this time around the parties have brought in a fake secular issue and leaving the more important issues on the back burner. Hope the people are watching this and would show it in the poll results - just hoping.
