By Kawalpreet Kaur
I was born in a pluralistic and tolerant India but I fear I may not die in the same.
Someone asked me the other day what makes you Indian? I proudly announced the fact that India is a home to different cultures, religions and tribes. Its the diversity that makes it special. The idea of being an Indian is embedded in the idea of being tolerant and proud of different cultures and religions.
If pluralism is a precious principle that gives us the idea of how we define India. Then how and when we reached this point where secularism has become altogether a bad word, a word which is mocked as SICKULAR by the right wing, sometimes used by politicians to appease or polarize and often to instill fear and further their political gains.
Have we allowed our politicians to reduce secularism to such instance where it is being shammed? Its existence is reduced to a mere political script, read out every time we head for elections, transformed into a campaign agenda. As the campaign starts phrases like pseudo secularism and maut ka saudagar finds space in headlines.
It is certainly redundant to frame the political debate around secularism to in terms of support to MODI or not. How secular is Ram Vilas Paswan, who stormed out of NDA in 2002 because of his secular credentials, only to return after 12 years. What happened to those credentials? Was it matter of just 12 years? How well Nitish Kumar justifies his years old alliance with NDA and now back door negotiations with congress.
For Samajwadi party, secularism is a mantra which its starts chanting to defend all its acts. How well it justifies Muzzafarnagar riots which occurred under its administration? For congress after years of inefficiency and scams, secularism is the only distinctive offering.
The political hypocrisy has weakened the idea rather instead of strengthening it. We need to claim this back from our political establishment otherwise it would be reduced to just an election slogan.
A student of psychological sciences in IP College, DU. Kawalpreet is passionate about politics. She sees herself as a politician of principles in future. A feminist, awarded debater, ardent reader and an art lover. She has written extensively in the past about social issues, women and politics for various organizations.. Interested in politics, ancient history, literature, womens and social issues. She believes in leading by example and is working with various nongovernmental organizations. You can connect with her by leaving a mail at kawalpreet303@yahoo.in