India is under secular emergency

Chaitra Shuddha Chaturthi

By Amitabh Tripathi

The young leader of BJP and and its loksabha candidate for Philibhit in Uttar Pradesh  Varun Gandhi who surrendered before court on 28th of March now has been booked under NSA( national security act) for inciting hatred among communities and some other allegations. According to district administration of Philibhit this harsh and punitive act has been imposed on Varun Gandhi because he made a speech in Philibhit on 5th and 6th of March which is provocative and at the same time he also become instrumental in inciting the mob on 28th of March to take law in its hands  before courting arrest in Philibhit disrtict. 

This whole episode unfolded somewhere in first fortnight of March when some Television channels telecasted a socalled CD of the speech of Varun Gandhi in which he made some remarks on some community which has been denied by Varun Gandhi and demanded the forensic investigation of those socalled CD which has been allged as have voices of Varun Gandhi. Immediatley after some parts of CD were telecasted Election commision in India took that CD and after seeing the speech of Varun Gandhi  gave an advisory to the BJP not to field Varun Gandhi as its candidate as prima facie it seems that Varun Gandhi tried to incite haterd among communities. It was unprecedented advisory from Election Commision in history of republic India and BJP cried foul on this advisory and fall havily on Election commission for encrocahing its territory .

On the basis of those speech about which content Varun Gandhi objected and demanded for forensic investigation some FIR were lodged against him as cognisable offence and to prevent the arrest Varun Gandhi approached high court in Delhi for anticipatory bail. He got bail till 27th of March and when specualtion were high about the fate of Varun Gandhi after the expiry date of anticipatory bail this confident, unapologetic young face of BJP in dramatic turn opted for court arrest rather than extension of his anticipatory bail. Varun Gandhi moved to Philibhit to court arrest and before his court arrest a huge gathering welcomed him in Philibhit and during that episode clash between Police force and public took palce and lot of people were injured. 

After this incident the steps which has been taken by Government of Uttar Pradesh are highly surprising and indicates about the dictatorship of the chief minister of this largest state as well as competative vote bank politics between non BJP parties. But instead of this some big questions are involved in this whole episode.

The whole episode of Varun Gnadhi from telecast of his CD on some televison channels to his arrest in Philibhit and imposition of National Security Act on him has some grave implications as well as preganant with some severe questions. This whole episode was involved with a supposedly and presumedly hate speech against Muslim community. The over reaction of Media, political parties, constitutioanl autorities on this issue point out that India is under secular emergency  and in the grab of secularism leftist agenda and Muslim appeasement in being served by every institution in India.

Few things ought to be noted natural justice requires to give a chance to every person on whom allegations has been made to prove himself innocent but constitutional authority Election commission did not give a chance to Varun Gandhi to prove his innocene and deliverd an exparte verdict against Varun Gandhi. BJP tried to politicise this issue by framing Election commission as biased but I am not agree with this argument because the larger issue is involved in this matter and which deliberately BJP has not addressed fearing to loose the secular allies. 

Election commission has not acted to appese the Congress Party as implicitly BJP tried to communicate to people of India. The haste decision of Election Commission indicates about a trend which is taking place in India rapidly among constitutional authorities , Political parties and Media as well and that is bashing Hindus in the name of secularism. It was first case which I have witnessed in my life when any constitutional authority in India come to some conclusion merely rellying on the basis of informations provided by Media. Because once some Television channels telecasted this so called speech Election commission got access to this speech and decided about it. 

But as most of the people has hold Media responsible for all of this episode is not true because before this in terror attacks in India Media telecasted several stories on the nexus of Islamic terrorism but no action was taken because Government, Political parties or constitutional authorities were not so keen to act on those matters because of the fact well known to everyone.

When government of Uttar Pradesh invoked National Security Act on Varun Gandhi it was another example of how secularism has been defined in the wrong way in India. Mayawati the chief minister of Uttar Pradesh is the same political personality which tried to communalise the nuclear treaty few months ago when she wooed various Muslim member of parliaments from different political parties to oppose the deal in the name of Islam that deal was a step towards strategic alliance with America to which most Muslim see as an ememy of Islam. 

Keeping in mind the communal  past of MS Mayawati imposition of National security act on Varun Gandhi is not a surprising act but soon after this decision was made public the way Congress party reacted it was more than surprising as the first reaction from this  so called inhertier of Mahatma Gandhi and Jawahar Lal Nehru came from its spokesperson Abhishek Manu singhvi and he lashed out at Uttar Pradesh government for being slow in reaction and said that this step would have been taken earlier. This is really surprising and disturbing that a major political party believe in perception rather than substance.

The party which boast about the zero tolerance of violation of human rights from security personnel in counter terrorism and army operations in Jammu and Kashmir supports imposition of National security Act on a person who has not been given a chance even a once to prove him innocent.  It shows how much growth secularism has taken place in India from keeping out religion to public face to allow the policies to be dictated  in the favour of one community.

BJP will certainly try to exploit the maxmum benfit of this whole controversy but the way BJP has handled this whole episode expose its confusion  on the issue of secularism . Inspite of  attacking the whole controversy in the light of definition of secularism BJP tried to take the root of technicalities to evade the debate on this issue. 

Episode of Varun Gandhi is not related with any technicality as BJP advoactes but it is question of how India is going to respond to the nexus of Terrorism and Islam and balancing it with resentment within Hindu community within parameters of constitution but instead of doing this BJP adopted the confusing short cut. It is really surprising to see the confusion of primeministerial candidate of BJP Mr L K Advani who in decade of 90’s ignited the debate of secularism and pseudo secularism to give a new phrase to BJP as a stick to them to beat with to secualrists.

The whole controversy has some significant implications on the body politic of India in near future because every time grass violation of eqaulaity before law come out in open social contrat and social cohesion get effected  but in Indian politcs it is most unforuante aspect that from last one century politcal parties tried to tilt the social contrat in favour of Muslim community with all its poilitcal and religious ambitions and instead of influening them to shed some of their ambitions this balace was made with getting concessions from Hindu society. Even great idelouges among Muslim intelligentia who are being treated as liberal see the origin of this problem in the rennaissnace of India which they define as Hindu rennaissnce. 

India is facing this problem for last one century and in global persepetive when political Islam has come out with all of its ambitions and jihadi terrorism has added a fuel into it this problem needs to be solved.  In present scenario when we have adopted the western democracy as form of our governance it is our responsibility to solve the problems in this periphery and for that reason issue of social contract is more important for the stability of democracy and society and state must not tilt the social contract in favour of any particualr community .  

In this whole episode it has been proved that secularism in India has become irrelevant as it has not been defined in western context and after the collapse of soviet union all the communists survived themselves into secularism and started to set the agenda of secularism with leftist goals. It has been evident in last two decades that secualrists in India has become allies of Islamists to push their political Islamic goal and that is the reason why in India issues of foreign policies as alliance with America and Israel has become so much important issues among several regional political parties which are mostly relying on Muslim vote bank.

In Keral left parties fought last legislative election on the issue of froeign policy as why India voted agianst Iran in IAEA with photgraph of PLO chief Yaaser Arafat. At the same time leftists who supposed to be athiests are allying with Abdul Naseer Madani who has been guilty in Coimbatoor blast. Not only leftists in Soutern part of India but one regional party in northern India Samajwadi Party also openly advoactes for the issues which are relevant for India but very dear to the heart of Islamic Ummah. It was evident few years ago at the arrival of president of United States in India when leftist with Samajwadi Party mobilised Muslims in various parts of the country to oppose the visit of George W Bush. In this general election Congress Party has allied with a fundamentalist Islamic party which declared the bounty of 250 Million rupees on the head of Danish cartoonist and American president Gerorge W Bush.

Indian Media and most of the academic field has been occupied by leftist during cold war era with active support of Soviet Union and after the collpse of Soviet Union they converted thmeselves into seculrists to brand Hindu nationalist as communalist to prove themselves as crusaders of secularism but in the long run they want to push the leftist agenda with help of Islamists to achieve the goal of impositon of their ideology with making India as base station. To make this happen they want to destroy all the resistence forces in India with war of perception and secualr emergency. 

Now this nexus has been able to portray the Hindu movement as communalist movement with their comapritive perception of Islamic fundamentalism with Hindu fundamentalism and Radical Islam with Radical Hindu. The whole controversy on Varun Gandhi has exposed the vulnerability of Hindus in its own country before its own constitutional authorities. This whole controversy should not be studied in isolation because it is going to open the flood gates for various debates in India and outside India.

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