Vital Importance Of Coming Elections
By V.M.Tarkunde
21 August, 2003
In a multi-religious country like India, democracy can subsist only
on the basis of secularism. A secular democracy does not require
that the people at large should have no religious faith. What is
requires is that the bulk of the people should agree that religion
should have no bearing on political issues and that therefore there
should be a separation of religion and politics.Whatever may have been other shortcomings of Jawaharlal Nehru, he
was undoubtedly a staunch secular democrat.Dr Ambedkar was obviously
the main architect of the Indian Constitution, but the contribution
of Jawaharlal Nehru with his huge popularity was indispensable for
the promulgation of secular democratic constitution of India.
Jawaharlal Nehru not only helped materially in framing a secular
democratic constitution for India, he after the promulgation of the
Constitution, established and ran a democratic and secular government
in the country for nearly seventeen years.,Because of the success of antifascist forces in the last Great
War.India obtained independence without having developed an
adequately strong democratic movement for the replacement of foreign
rule by an independent secular democracy in our country. That is why
religious orthodoxy remained rampant in India even after it obtained
complete independence. Religious orthodoxy, however, did not by
itself imply the promotion of communalism which requires the
prevalence of enmity between two or more religious communities. It
can be stated with confidence that after the acquisition of
independence and in the course of the operation of a secular
democratic state in India for a now long period of nearly 40 years,
there has been a gradual reduction of the religious orthodoxy of the
people and a gradual growth of a democratic culture in India. That
process of a gradual growth of a genuinely democratic culture in
India was, however, interrupted when a coalition government
dominated by a communal organization like the BJP was established in
the country in or about 1998.In the last general election, BJP did not get an absolute majority
in the Lok Sabha. But because of the relative unpopularity of the
Congress, the BJP emerged as the largest minority party. Under the
clever leadership of Atal Bihari Vajpayee, the BJP announced that in
order to form a coalition government, it would keep under suspension
the more controversial parts of its communal programme, such as the
construction of a Ram temple at the place of the Babri
Masjid,introduction of a common civil code, and the deletion of
Article 370 of the Constitution which grants a special status to
Jammu and Kashmir. On this basis, the BJP invited opposition parties
to join in forming a coalition government, which would lay down an
agreed programme of action. There were a number of opportunist
leaders of comparatively smaller political parties like Mayawati and
Fernandes, who were prepared to pocket their anti-communalism and
join hands with the BJP to form a coalition government., Thus the
BJP, inspite of being a minority party came to power under a
coalition government which took the name National Democratic
Alliance (NDA) and which would function under its domination.As will be shown below, NDA government under the leadership of the
BJP has caused grave damage to the secular democracy of India. If
after the coming general election, the BJP again emerges as the
largest minority party, it will again be able to form a coalition
government with the help of many unprincipled opportunist leaders,
and in that eventuality, the secular democracy of India may be so
materially damaged as to be on the of path extinction.We are giving below, in a summary form, a few details of the ways in
which the present BJP coalition government has damaged the secular
democracy in India.As soon as the BJP coalitin government was formed,the first act of
Vajpayee was to approach the President of India with a request that
he should approve of a programme by which India would have nuclear
weapons. The President gave the required approval and this action
was approved by almost all the opposition parties including the
Congress as well as some of the former Presidents and Prime
Ministers of India. Vajpayee claimed that this step was taken for
ensuring the security of India, but what was actually achieved was
that India not only lost its moral stature as the most important
non-nuclear state, but its insecurity was actually enhanced. With
its very limited nuclear weapons, India is rapidly becoming a puppet
state of the U.S.A. As was to be expected, some other States
including Pakistan acquired nuclear weapons. Pakistan in particular
not only manufactured or acquired some nuclear weapons but it refused
to join India in declaring that will not use its nuclear weapons
unless it was subjected to nuclear attack or had a genuine
apprehension thereof. Pakistan is a much smaller country than India
and has a smaller army. It is bound to be defeated in a war with
India unless it uses a nuclear weapon as a deterrent. There was thus
some justification in Pakistan `s refusal to agree that it will not
have the first nuclear strike. Thus instead of increasing its
security, India `s becoming a nuclear State has increased its
insecurity, besides losing its moral stature as a leading
non-nuclear state. In this process, India has spent huge amounts in
acquiring and maintaining nuclear weapons, so that it has no
adequate resources for reducing mass poverty and increasing
employment among the poor.Under BJP coalition rule, India `s history has been perverted in
order to show that the Muslim rule in India in the recent past was
much more harmful than what is recorded in history books so far.
Alterations have been accordingly made in history books,
particularly those which are meant to be used in schools and
colleges. another term of BJP`s government will cause further
perversion in teaching history to Indian students.In many department, such as education, industry ,police, etc
vacancies are being filled up by the appointment of supporters of the
BJP and persons who are inclined to he Hindu communalists. This
process is highly detrimental to the continuation of a secular
democracy in the country. In the course of time, the Indian
government at the centre as well as in the States will cease to be
impartial and in this way the present weak and wobbly secular
democracy of India may be destroyed.Political opportunism which is the main cause of the increasing
corruption as well as vulgarization of government services has
increased during the rule of BJP-led coalition government. This may
be illustrated by one graphic instance. In order to avoid the
collapse, the Mayawati government had secured the support of 35
unprincipled legislators. This was achieved by appointing every one
these 35 legislators as ministers in the state, with the result that
many of the newly appointed ministers could not get charge of any
portfolio! this unprincipled action was adopted by Mayawati with the
consent of the Prime Minister Vajpayee. When Vajpayee was asked
whether this was morally justified, his answer was that this was
done "only for power." Is it not true that the power politics is the
main cause of opportunism which enhances corruption and political
misrule? This attitude of Vajpayee shows that the BJP rule is even
more opportunistic than what the country had in the past.These instances justify the conclusion that the rule of a
communalist party cannot possibly benefit our country. To save the
secular democracy of India, it is necessary that a BJP government
does not come to power after the next election. It is hoped that
Indian voters in the coming general election will ensure that
communalism does not succeed so as to destroy Indian democracy.[Justice (retd.) V.M. Tarkunde is 94 and still active. He was the President
of the Indian Radical Humanist Association and Chairman of the Indian
Renaissance Institute for several decades and served also as Editor of the
Radical Humanist for several decades. He also served on the board of the
IHEU, and received the IHEU's International Humanist Award.]