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On the occasion of completion
of 125 years of the Indian National Congress its President Sonia
Gandhi criticized the Communal forces. She pointed out that there
is a pernicious impact of individuals, institutions and ideologies
that distort our history, that thrive on spreading religious
prejudice and that incite people to violence using the religion as
a cover. (December 19, 2010). She went on to say that Congress has
always fought against communalism of all forms irrespective of
their source and that there was no distinction between majority
and minority communalism as both are equally dangerous to the
country. While one can understand the spirit of the statement
there are lot of problems with this formulation.
To begin with the Congress
President needs to be reminded as to what her grand father-in-law,
the architect of modern India, Pundit Jawaharlal Nehru, had to say
on the issue. He had said that while both majority and minority
communalisms are bad, the majority communalism is more dangerous
as it presents itself under the garb of the nationalism. The
minority communalism at the worst comes through as the separatist
tendency, it also keeps giving provocations to the majority
communalism; it keeps providing them pretexts to undertake what
they want to do anyway. For Congress to equate majority and
minority communalism is a big climb down from the secular
foundations on which Nehru wanted this party to be based. And
practically if we see in the arena of communal politics and
communal violence both, it is the majority communalism which
creates situations for the same. And then this majoritarian
communalism has a vast network which affects the thinking of the
society, it shifts the focus of social concerns from the basic
needs of society to the identity issues like the Ram Temple
agitation launched by it.
While Shah Bano issue was
taken up by the minority communalists, it surely did a great
damage to the nation, still its damage is no where close to what
the Ram Temple did by dividing the society along religious lines
and later on going to demolish the Masjid and launching the
‘celebratory violence’ all over the country. Surely both
communalisms are a modern presentation of feudal interests and
feudal values added up by the interests of sections of middle
class who want to preserve their privileges and desire status quo
for continuation of their privileged position in the society.
Sonia Gandhi’s claim that
Congress has always fought communalism does not reflect the whole
truth. There have been times when Congress has been looking the
other way around when the communal marauders are on the rampage.
Be it the anti-Sikh pogrom, the Babri demolition and in many such
situations Congress has either been looking the other way around
or taking an afternoon siesta, when the fire of communal violence
is raging. It is for this reason that many a critics blame
Congress being communal and some go to the extent of blaming
Congress more than BJP, as lot of communal violence has taken
place when Congress has been in power. This criticism, though
incorrect, is a sign of extreme frustration on the part of the
victims of the violence and they can see that some action on the
part of Congress could have saved the situation. But that,
intervention of Congress to stop the violence, generally does not
take place. There are two deeper reasons of this Congress
inaction. One, the communal forces have infiltrated various wings
of our state apparatus, police, bureaucracy, even army and
judiciary as pointed out by Digvijay Singh. And second, as Nehru
had correctly warned that many a power seekers who are communal
have entered Congress without any conviction for secular values.
One must say on this score
that the party has been very lax, and has kept short term
electoral compulsions above the ones of principled politics. Its
stand on the highly biased Ayodhya judgment has again reminded us
that this party is not bold enough to call the spade a spade. The
Congress kept quiet on Ayodhya verdict while as a matter of fact
this judgment has been far away from the values of Indian
Constitution, from the secular and democratic ethos of our freedom
movement of which Congress under Gandhi and Nehru was the moving
force.
Still one will welcome the statement
of Congress President if Congress really adopts a principled
secular stand. In that case will it ensure that Ayodhya judgment
is evaluated as per the secular ethos, as per the justice to the
minority community? If Congress is principled in its secularism it
must take up the affirmative action for minorities in full gear.
The implementation of Sachar Committee report, that of Rangnath
Mishra Committee recommendation can’t be kept in the cold freeze
and at the same time claim the secular tag?
Will Congress take up the
battle against the distortion of history, the word of mouth
propaganda against minorities, spreading of religious prejudices
against minorities? Is it equipped to take on the multiple tasks
which are needed to preserve and promote secular values? Does it
train its cadres in the values of secularism and democracy? While
the recruitment drive for membership of Congress is in full swing,
what are the efforts to ensure that the new recruits are not
carrying the baggage of communal biases prevalent in the society?
There is an in-depth need to train the existing and new members of
political parties owning allegiance to secular democratic
nationalism to take up the awareness and training programs which
are able to oppose the religious hatred prevalent in the society.
Short of these the claims of Congress President will just be
declaration of the intent lacking in any substance.
And what about the statement
of Digaviyay Singh in which he warned about the infiltration of
communal elements in the state apparatus? Will a strategy be
devised to ensure that all the state officials are really
committed to secular democratic values and are not acting on the
ground of communal bias. True, communalists have sowed their seeds
all over, so what is the strategy of a secular party to counter
this? Mr. Singh also said that communal forces are targeting
minorities a la Nazis in Germany. A correct observation, but what
is being done to counter that is the real question and a challenge
which needs to be taken up.
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