BJP or Congress, who is secular, Narayana Murthy says neither, I ask what is Secularism

Infosys founder N.R. Narayana Murthy says that neither the Congress or the BJP is truly secular.  Everybody has his own opinion about secularism.  My question to Mr.Murthy et al, what is secularism.  Secularism is a very shallow word in Indian context.  The dictionary says secularism means a Philosophy or a doctrine that rejects religion and the attitude that religion should have no place in civil affairs.  But Mr.Murthy should leave apart the political parties, the religion is deep rooted in our day to day affairs right from our homes to our offices  Every year, every government and most private offices host a Pooja if it majority hindu and a Urs if it is majority muslim office.  Taking the religion out of an Indian will mean taking the soul out of him.  We are not so developed as the United States that we can proudly say that the religion is not a part of the state.  Rather, it will be beneficial if we agree that the religion is a part and parcel of our Indianness.  Secularism is the single most and oft abused word in India.  People just say it without knowing the meaning or the wholeness of the world.

So being secular essentially means to take out the religion out of the state.   This is not possible in India, however the religious leanings of all political parties are evident from the way they conduct themselves.  In this scenario I think that BJP is a better alternative because at least its Hindutva agenda is open.  The Congress has over the years used its power to pander masses be it in Punjab, North East, Jammu & Kashmir or in Sri Lanka.  

India has had to fight the evil of terrorism because the Congress government at the centre supported all the above at one or another point of time to suit its own political needs.  Everybody knows that the J & K elections of 1989 were rigged to make G.M.Shah the Chief Minister of the state against all the public opinion.  It is this mistake that turned the tide of most pro India Kashmiris into anti India.  It is this wound that is not healing but causing pain to us in many different ways.  Be it a Jawan losing his life at the border or a Kashmiri youth losing his life to a army bullet or the gory massacre  by the terrorists.

In Punjab too, they supported and propped up Mr.Bhindranwale against the Akali Dal.  Ultimately thousands lost lives for this mistake done by the Congress including Mrs.Indira Gandhi.  Supporting the LTTE with arms and money by the Congress is known to all but ultimately it took a life a young and dynamic leader of India in the form of Rajiv Gandhi.

There is a old adage which says what you sow so shall you reap.  We have reaped enough hatred due to the ill implemented secularism (called the pseudo-secularism by intellectuals) by the Congress during its years in power.  Now let us now make amends and choose one of the lesser evils of the two.

It is a simple fact that India needs a single party Government at the centre to implement the reforms and usher in double digit growth.  The alliances are a failed idea and only work in the breaking up of the nation.  The regional parties come to the table with their own partisan regional agenda.  This agenda has no place in Lok Sabha.  The Lok Sabha is and will forever be for the India as a whole.  To achieve this, we need a strong and dominant party in power and a equally strong opposition.  This may seem odd but the I think Indians should give up on the third, fourth or the fifth front which often rises when the elections are due.  Madam Jayalalitha and Mamata should know that Mulayam has never been a grateful and reliant partner.  He is known to ditch even his best allies in the quest for power.  

We are in entering the decade of Asian powers and let us not waste our precious time discussing the merits of secularism.  The BJP with its known agenda is always a better bet for the future of this country.  However the BJP must also guarantee that no muslims or other minorities are harmed in any way and the Godhra was and will just be a aberation in the history of India.  India can't bear for another Godhra to happen, to much was lost in the riots including lives, money and the mutual trust between the two communities.  BJP should guarantee that this shall not be repeated in any form.   The logic of Savarkar's Hindutva doesn't rely of imposing Hinduism on all but rather providing the Rajya Dharma or the rule of righteousness to all irrespective of their religion.  If BJP can guarantee such a Rajya Dharma, then all the communities will benefit from the progress, as we were benefiting before the arrival of the Britishers and we attain our goal of being the 3rd biggest economy in the world.

Read more about the affairs of politics in India here.

Vijay Prabhu

Wharton Business School Forum mess up with Narendra Modi

It is strange to know that a learning centre like the Wharton Business School should falls prey to the dirty politics of hatred and prejudice.  Being one of the leading education centres of United States, the Wharton Business School has eminent educationalists, businessmen, politicians, free thinkers and liberals on its Panel.  So how come this Panel decided to cancel the Video Conference meet between Narendra Modi and the students.  This smacks of pure hypocrisy.

First things first, the United States of America has been a nation of liberated souls right from Abraham Lincoln to the current President Barak Obama.  It has opened its arms to many like minded people through out its history.  Now it is opening it arms for the Chinese dissidents.  It is not granting Narendra Modi the visa due to its internal politics but as a nation state, it is still the biggest centre of doing business and selling ideas.  Indeed it is known as the land of opportunities.

It hosts the United Nations General Assembly and the assembly has seen the worst enemies of United States come to its shores and rant about the US policies and atrocities committed by it. Watch this video of Mr.Chavez, President of Venezuela, calling President Bush a devils.  Mr.Chavez was entitled to his views as a individual and a head of the state of Venezuela.

No one objected then.  No one could object because United Nations General Assembly is immune to the internal laws of United States.

Politics and learning should not be mixed together, they create a potent poison.  The politicians will do their jobs and the educationists should do their job.  And their job is to impart free and fair education.  In the same way like United Nations is immune to the internal laws of United States because it is a assembly of the Nations of the World, the Wharton and other Universities of US and the world should be immune to the internal laws because they are the assembly of the students of the world.  

A student is a student, whether he is from US, Canada, China, Nigeria, Saudi Arabia or Pakistan.  He is a student because he wants to learn.  He wants to learn because he wants know what is wrong and right.  To know the right from the wrong he should be exposed to both the sides.  It is then, through a healthy debate he can form his opinion.  This opinion is what makes him a human being, whether he is left leaning, right leaning, capitalist, communist, communalist or just plain liberal doesn't matter.  IT is his own right and conscience which guides him in the end.  

So as a educational institution, it is the duty of Wharton or for that matter any educational institution to expose its students to all the information it possibly can and then let the students decide what is right or wrong.  If it does not do so, it is no better than the Jehadi diktats which pronounce 'Fatwa' without giving a fair hearing to the person concerned.

Having said that, I don't know what problem the Wharton has with Narendra Modi.  The man has won mandate for 60 million people of Gujarat which includes 10 % Muslims, thrice.  Give him a break. Winning elections once, in states of India is difficult, keeping the anti incumbency factor at bay is the worst nightmare faced by all the Chief Ministers of the various states of India.   This man has done that and through a rather handsome majority on all three times.

The other side of the argument is that Narendra Modi has not been named in any of the various charge sheets filed by the law enforcement agencies.  It has names of his aides, fellow ministers but he is not named.  The Supreme Court of India, the apex body of justice in India, had vaguely hinted his unwillingness to go after the suspected participants for carnage in Godhra.  No where has it mentioned him as a co-accomplice or co-conspirator for the progrom of 2002.

In face of above, if the Wharton and its deemed panelists consider Narendra Modi a conspirator or a fundamentalist then they are questioning the legitimacy of Supreme Court judgements and thereby questioning the Supreme Court of India.

By not letting Narendra Modi speak at the conference has done Mr.Modi no harm, but it has damaged its own reputation as upholder of education and freedom of expression.  In a paradox of a kind, Narendra Modi has emerged winner due to the hodge podge decision of the business school.

May some sanity return to its panelists.  Please post your comments even if you disagree with me.  

Vijay Prabhu