Almost 72 years ago, our country woke up as a free nation tomake its mark in the modern world. Our founding fathers laid the foundation ofthis great nation on the unity and brotherhood of its people for our unity hadproven to be a powerful weapon, instrumental in achieving freedom from BritishColonialism. The Indian National Movement was a movement that had unifiedpeople of different castes, creeds and religions and only then it had beensuccessful in uprooting the British Regime from Indian Soil.
Immediately after achieving freedom, there was a Herculeantask before our national leaders, to keep the peoples of different religionsand regions united. A task that was especially difficult as the country wasstill nursing the wounds of partition. But our leaders of the time showed asense of maturity and magnanimity in keeping the future of the nation theironly priority while making numerous sacrifices, personal and otherwise. Thepartition of the country based on the two-nation theory had led to unforeseentragedy as lacks of people were killed and lacks others displaced. But despitethe tragedy, lacks of Muslims chose to live in India and likewise many Hindus,Sikhs and Christians chose to build their lives in Pakistan. It was onlypossible because since time immemorial ‘Bharat’ had been the land of saints,sufis and Gurus and the teachings of these elevated souls gave them thestrength and courage to again live together as brothers and try to build abright future over the ruins of a bleak past. For the role that our nationbuilders and these unsung heroes played in creating the modern India, theydeserve a warm salute.
But, years later the secular fabric of our nation seemsshaken as there is a palpable sense of insecurity and fear among theminorities. The campaign has driven a wedge between different communities ofthe country which is clearly visible and thus reported not only by national butalso international media.
Only recently the US Secretary of State, Mike Pompeoreleased the State Department’s reporton International freedoms, an annual submission mandated by Law. The reportconsisting of country wise chapters detailed mob related violence, legal statusof minorities and government policies in the chapter on India.
The report referred to the Central government’s and StateGovernments’ steps to affect Muslim practices and institutions and itschallenge in the Supreme Court to the minority status of Muslim minorityeducational institutions affording them independence in hiring and curriculum decisions.The report also highlighted that various activists understand the proposal torename cities as a strategic design to erase Muslim contribution to IndianHistory.
While I agree with our government’s rejection of the USfindings on the ground that no foreign entity has the right to report on thestate of our citizen’s rights, the concern of the global family and independentagencies cannot be completely overlooked. Our ruling establishment has toseriously check acts of mob related violence and vandalism as soon as possibleso that Indian secular image is not dented anymore. The duty of the governmentat this crucial juncture is to prevent religion based violence, oppression anddiscrimination. It has to facilitate the creation of an atmosphere where thesociety at large realises that all countrymen have equal rights in all spheresof life, without any discrimination on the basis of caste, colour, region orreligion and that no religious group can claim to be the custodian of thecountry. For the following words of our First PM, Jawahar Lal Nehru stand asrelevant today as they were decades ago- “All of us, to whatever religion wemay belong, are equally the children of India with equal rights, privileges andobligations. We cannot encourage communalism or narrow-mindedness, for nonation can be great whose people are narrow in thought or in action.”
It is also noteworthy to analyse the role of oppositionparties in totality in the present scenario which has not been satisfactory inprotecting the rights of minorities. As it is the moral and constitutional dutyof the opposition in a democratic setup to raise their voice against all kindsof discrimination and injustice .It’s high time for the opposition to comeforward aggressively to protect the secular fabric of our country,
Only when all communities and religions can freely andpeacefully thrive and contribute towards the country’s progress can PM NarendraModi’s slogan of Sabka Saath, Sabka Vikas, Sabka Vishwas be said to beimplemented in letter and spirit.
(Teja Singh is Advocate, J&K HIgh Court Jammu)