Just to recapitulate some famous constitutional sayings:
- that, among its other attributes, the Indian state/republic is a ‘secular’ one;
- that all citizens, regardless of caste, creed, class, race, gender, language or region have the fundamental right to ‘profess, practice, and propagate’ their religious faith;
- that the state shall not ‘discriminate against or favour any particular religion’;
- that appeal to religious identity/sentiments during electioneering is ultra vires.
Quite recently, an honourable Justice of the Supreme Court observed that secularism is the core feature of the constitution.’
Thus, as of now, everything remains de jure secular in India.
Only that over the last decade, and fiercely now, Bharat has changed all that.
Look where you will, and agents of the executive think nothing of observing the injunctions noted above in widespread de facto breach without raising the least public or institutional eyebrow.
The pragmatic fourth estate desists wisely from making an issue.What corporate may put the constitution above unimpeded profit making?
Day in and day out, bold and blatant communal fulminations blare from electronic channels as barely any aspect of institutional and collective social life is spared from being incorporated into a majoritarian makeover of the realm.
Every syllable of political discourse is calculated to remind us of the allegedly fatal divide between Hindus and Muslims.
Paradoxically, the stronger our executive gets, and by its own boastful claims, the more sectarian fears it busily propagates; you would think that Hindus were never as much in danger of all sorts from a 14% Muslim minority as they are under our staunch saffron rule.
The latest slogan is that were Hindus to come to be divided, a Bangladesh-like calamity would descend upon them.
Be it noted that, barring some episodes of minority harassment by sectarian vigilante groups after the change of regime there, no credible evidence of any persecution of Hindus in that neighbouring country has come to the fore. To its credit, the new regime remains as committed to the protection of the Hindu and other minorities as was the Hasina regime.
More recently, as our current season of election campaigns proceeds, the honourable Narendra Modi has in person voiced the fear that a ‘vote jihad’ has been unleashed by the godless opposition against the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party.
One must of course marvel at the ingenuity with which, ceaselessly, the right-wing generates an unrelenting and an unmistakable dog-whistle discourse.
Not for a second does the ruling rightwing ask itself why it is that if Muslims voted zestfully for the BJP during the Vajpayee regime (1999-2004), they have been unwilling to do so during the Modi regime’s second tenure especially.
The official project is to convey to hoi polloi that in not voting for the Modi-led BJP, Muslims have proved themselves to be anti-national threats both to Sanatan Dharma and the ordained theocracy it seeks to install for the good of Bharat.
If the much touted slogan used to be ‘sab ka saath, sab ka vikas, sab ka vishwas (that the Modi government means to carry all citizens with it, labour for every Indian’s progress, seek every citizens’ trust),’ a noted satrap in West Bengal was to holler forthrightly that it is time the BJP stood only for those who stand for it – ‘jis ka saath, uss ka vikas.’
Even an honourable Justice of the top court, ultimate guardian of the secular constitution, thought nothing of hosting the honourable head of the secular executive at a Ganesh puja in his residence.
These unlovely considerations lead but to one unlovely conclusion: we can hug the constitution as much as we want, the powers-that-be have already and with gusto changed it without actually changing it.
And with no demur from any quarter that matters barring an irritatingly persistent Rahul Gandhi.
This is truly a historic achievement.
Day by uncontested day, the liberal contract that had once informed the freedom movement and the creation of our constitution stands mortally eroded.
It would be foolhardy to prognosticate that the occurrence is a passing one.
Even if a truly secular dispensation were to come to power in 2029, it is much to be doubted that the transformation our state and vast sections of the polity have been subjected to would be wholly reversible.
Given what depredations are continuously wrought on our school education, college syllabi, and institutional recruitments, the generation to come may find itself as much a stranger to our history prior to the Modi era as cheese is to chalk.
So, we can continue to hold our constitution sacred like other sacred books, and disregard its pronouncements as we disregard our best scriptural teachings as well.
God helps those who help the stock market.
The rest are but fodder for the cannon.
Badri Raina taught at Delhi University.
