Watch Out for Modi’s Mann Ki Baat: from BJP’s ‘Vision Document’ for Delhi to I&B Republic Day Ad!

What they really think of the people from North-East

BJP’s ‘Vision 2050’ Document released today for 2015 Delhi elections (as if BJP is seeking mandate for next 35 years and they have nothing to offer in this election), refers to the people from the North East as ‘immigrants’ – implying they are foreigners rather than citizens.

BJP’s majoritarian vision is always uncomfortable with diversity, and with the Constitutional guarantees of the rights of the diverse peoples. The Modi Government and the RSS have been striving to re-define the North East and merge the unique identities of the peoples of the North East with a homogeneous ‘Hindu’ identity. On December 7, two weeks before flagging off of Delhi University’s annual “train of learning”, the Gyanodaya Express, students received orientation from the RSS joint general secretary Krishna Gopal  on the topic of the Indian “motherland” and its links to the Northeast, focusing on Hindu gods and Hindu freedom fighters, one of who “fought against conversion of Hindus to Christianity”. He also said “Lord Krishna’s wife Rukmani belonged to an Arunachal tribe. And that Brahmaputra was created by Brahma to solve a tiff between Krishna and Shiva!” (Indian Express Dec 22, 2014) Also, a grand plan to reassert the Hindu roots of the Northeast states is afoot as the government is preparing to map a new Hindu pilgrimage circuit by linking ancient temples and other places in the region that are mentioned in mythology. (Indian Express Jan 12, 2015).

And now BJP’s own document has revealed the sheer double-standards and discriminatory approach. One may recall how BJP leader Sushma Swaraj, in the wake of Nido Tania’s murder, made a socking racial reference to ‘chapti naak’ (flat nose) in her speech in Parliament.          

‘Accidental’ Tampering followed by Call for Debate over  ‘Socialist Secular’ words in Constitution’s Preamble

On the occasion of Republic Day, the Information and Broadcasting Ministry of the Modi Government issued an advertisement, with an image of the Preamble of the Constitution minus two key words – ‘secular’ and ‘socialist’. The Preamble of the Constitution declares that “WE, THE PEOPLE OF INDIA, having solemnly resolved to constitute India into a SOVEREIGN SOCIALIST SECULAR DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC and to secure to all its citizens: JUSTICE, social, economic and political;

LIBERTY of thought, expression, belief, faith and worship; EQUALITY of status and of opportunity; And to promote among them all

FRATERNITY assuring the dignity of the individual and the unity and integrity of the Nation; IN OUR CONSTITUENT ASSEMBLY this twenty-sixth day of November, 1949, do HEREBY ADOPT, ENACT AND GIVE TO OURSELVES THIS CONSTITUTION.”

Scrambling to defend itself on the intent behind the omission of ‘secular’ and ‘socialist’ from a 2015 Republic Day advertisement, the Modi Government – as well as the BJP and its allies – found themselves speaking in many contradictory tongues.

First, the I&B Ministry explained that they had merely used a watermark of the original 1950 Preamble, which at the time only had the words ‘Sovereign Democratic Republic’. What is wrong in commemorating the original Preamble, they asked innocently? Had the mater remained there, perhaps the apprehensions of India’s concerned citizens would have subsided.

But soon enough, Shiv Sena, an ally of the BJP, hailed the ‘accident’ by which the two words were excluded, and called for the accident to be turned into a ‘reality’. And soon after, the Telecom Minister of the Modi Government, senior BJP leader Ravi Shankar Prasad, called for a ‘national debate’ on the need for those two words in the Preamble! In support of these calls for outright deletion on the one hand and ‘debate’ on the other, it was argued that the words ‘secular’ and ‘socialist’ had been introduced by Indira Gandhi during the Emergency. These words carried the Emergency taint, it was argued in saffron quarters, and therefore should be deleted.

The Shiv Sena and Ravi Shankar Prasad revealed the real ‘Mann ki Baat’ behind the omission of the words ‘secular’ and ‘socialist’ from the Preamble as displayed in the Modi Government advertisement. That ‘Mann ki Baat’ is nothing but the agenda of eroding secularism to head in the direction of a ‘Hindu Rashtra’ in which minorities will not enjoy equality and freedom. It is extremely significant that throughout, the Prime Minister Narendra Modi maintained a calculated silence on the subject, allowing his Government and party to speak in many voices.    

Many offensive amendments made by Indira Gandhi to the Constitution were deleted by subsequent amendments by the Janata Government as well as by Supreme Court intervention. But no Government in the four decades since the Emergency has ever yet felt the need to ‘debate’ the inclusion of the words ‘secular’ and socialist’, and there is good reason for this.  The main reason is that those words simply underlined or amplified the assurance present in the rest of Preamble, as well as in many Articles of the Constitution.

The word ‘Secular’ only reflects the spirit of the Preamble’s guarantee of ‘liberty of faith and worship’, of equality, and of fraternity based on the ‘dignity of the individual’. And this spirit is fully reflected in several Articles of the Constitution.

What about ‘socialist’? It may be argued that with the passing of the ‘public sector’ regime and the establishment of liberalization as a policy framework, is has become anachronistic to cal India ‘socialist.’ Others can argue, rightly, that India was never really ‘socialist’ in the revolutionary sense of the term. But what these arguments forget is that the term ‘socialist’ is important in as much as it reflects the spirit of ‘social, economic and political justice’ promised in both the Preamble and the directive principles of state policy. At a time when Governments are trying to step back from their duty of ensuring basic entitlements of food, shelter, water and so on to the people, the Constitutional commitment to that duty is important. At the present juncture, any move to drop the word ‘socialist’ is nothing but a ploy to claim Constitutional ‘approval’ for the rampant flouting of the principles of social and economic justice by Governments.

In a recent interview, BJP President Amit Shah has reiterated that his party sees no need to remove the words ‘socialist’ and ‘secular’ from the Preamble. But it is significant that in the same interview, Shah refused point blank to comment in any way on RSS Chief Mohan Bhagwat’s declaration that India is a Hindu Rashtra. If the BJP is indeed committed to the secular spirit of India’s Constitution, why is it unwilling to outright condemn the RSS’ ‘Hindu Nation’ claim that is the worst possible attack on that spirit? In the same interview, Amit Shah defended what his party calls ‘ghar wapsi’ and called for a ‘law against conversions’ – both of which fly in the face of the Constitutional guarantee of the freedom to practice and propagate one’s faith.

Ravi Shankar Prasad and others may ask, rhetorically, if Ambedkar was less secular because he saw no need to include the word ‘secular’ in the Preamble. But can there be any doubt whatsoever that Ambedkar was deeply opposed to the notion of India being a theocratic ‘Hindu Rashtra’? Ambedkar himself organized mass conversions to Buddhism and declared, ‘I may be born a Hindu but I will not die a Hindu’. Can there be any doubt that Ambedkar would find a ‘law against conversions’ opposed to the basic spirit of India’s Constitution as he drafted it?  

A ‘Hindu Rashtra’ is not just deeply dangerous for India’s religious minorities. It also spells an end to the Constitutional promise of equality and freedom for India’s Dalits, adivasis, oppressed castes and women. At the time when India adopted the Constitution, the RSS had opposed it and had called for the Manusmriti to be the Constitution of India as a ‘Hindu Rashtra’. The RSS organ Organiser, on November 30 1949, had complained that the Constitution had no mention of the Manusmriti – the same Manusmriti that is full of horrific decrees against the basic dignity and freedom of Dalits and women, the same Manusmriti that Ambedkar had publicly burnt.

It is precisely as a rebuff of and safeguard against these forces that seek to turn India into a Hindu rashtra of BJP-RSS dream that India’s Constitution and Preamble must continue to declare India’s secular character without any room for ambiguity.