Around the world, the momentum being developed is of “Right vs. Center”. In the US, the democrats and republicans are busy wrangling, in the UK the Labors and the Conservatives are busy underscoring the chasm and in India too, the so-called debate has sneaked into the limelight. The issue became even more flagrant with the election of Mr. Trump to the presidency of the US and since then there has been no end.
Some are averring that this is rightist’s epoch. With the Republicans taking up 33 out of 50 gubernatorial posts in the USA, Brexit in the UK, rightist politicians have certainly hit the bull’s eye. Though the statistics are easy to expound why this is rightist’s period, but still pasting them on the Indian subcontinent and furnishing exegesis based on the same would be nothing short of a tomfoolery because in India there is indeed no right, left or even center. Here we don’t understand the directions but we believe in time. If you are in power, head to whichever direction you want, but unfortunately if you are resting outside the parliament make your needle stick to the center and ensnarl the world through you pluralistic approach to ride back to power. This is not something novel. In fact, this is a synoptic version of our 70 years old political theory. Ideologies here are not paramount requisite to win but if you lose, your ideology will certain spring up to consciousness from its graveyard and you can beat the entire bush around this tractable phenomenon.
Elite cliques of erudite journalists and authors are busy terming the current scenario as that of “ Pluralism vs. Majoritarianism” but none is indeed ready to ponder on from where this concept came.
Pluralism means that we accept that many different identities can be extant together maintain perfect harmony and no infringements will be made to the rights of any identity in the nation. Through pluralism is a seemingly easy concept to apprehend but to find the real pluralist is an abstruse task. In India, self-proclaimed pluralists abound but only in the opposition parties. Notwithstanding having enjoyed so many years at the helm, these self-proclaimed political parties are now finding it difficult to even reserve a seat or two in the parliament and certainly, there has to be a reason. Either the Indian citizens are themselves disposed towards majoritarianism or the opposition pluralists are hoodwinkers. And our work is to scrutinize both the things in an outrightly disinterested manner.
India is one of the most culturally diverse countries in the world. Our demography gives a considerable speech to religions world is not even aware out. Our neighbors are filled with the multi-cultural entities and our famous judicial system has set precedents which are enough to corroborate the in the name of law, religion is “in-toto” eschewed. I won’t shy away from accepting that there are a few differences, but still the bonds that we all share together far outnumber the differences. The Muslim population in our country exceeds the combined Muslim population in various Islamic countries. Christians, Sikhs, Jews, Buddhists and many other religions exist under the shade of brethren. To an outsider, my words may seem are aggrandized and supercilious but to an Indian, I don’t need to expound further. Even the self-proclaimed pluralists term us as a multi-cultural society with tolerance towards every religion in the world and hence Indian public can be exonerated from this accusation.
Since our first accused has been exonerated, we must commence mulling over the next one: the opposition party’s pluralistic theme. This is going to stretch further since we need to exhume our past.
If we glance through our past, it is not hard to see that everyone swings with time and pluralism is more about fear. Congress has always worked through this frame of pluralism. Today, it counts itself as the biggest sympathizer of Muslims but it fails to answer as to why 42.7% of the country’s 180 million Muslims (Census 2011) are still unlettered. Those who brand everything as Dalits vs upper castes fail to answer a simple question: Who gave the slogan- “Pandit shank bajaega, haathi chalta jaega.” None is ready to answer because everybody has always operated through fear.
The single instrument that can conquer the world is ‘fear’. Here also fear is the key factor. In the previous 70 years, what the so-called pluralist parties have done is nothing but inducing fear in the minds of people. Muslims have been taught that BJP is against Islam but the preachers of this belief fail to answer the question as to why Muslims account for only 4.4% of all the students taking up higher education despite making up 14% of the population. This is the second time when BJP is in power. In our political history more than half of our period as an independent nation we have seen the governments of other parties, but still nobody has got anything. The same pluralistic flag bearing people who decry the current government of being pro-Hindu fail to answer the question as to why they didn’t do anything when they were themselves in power; the Left parties which are being vehemently censorious of the current government fail to answer as to what they did in regions like Bengal, when they were cherished with unquestionable power; the self-proclaimed pro-Dalit forces fail to answer as to why social engineering is their forte and not the upliftment of Dalits and other backward classes. Our politics has always been a politics of fear. Muslims are being infused with a fear of Hindus, Dalits being imposed with the fear of upper castes and this list continues to strain further.
Until and unless this fear is there, many such factors would continue to operate and obfuscate us all. The founders of this nation had an entrenched belief that we all can coexist with peace; that our Gods can be different but our nation can be one. Fear is indeed the potent nemesis of this beautiful proposition. The educated Indian is becoming more and more aware of this fact and hence today the so-called pluralists have been trounced in every respect. The India of today doesn’t want dichotomies, it wants peace and progress. It is a shame that when the whole nation is looking forward to joining the elite international groups, some are still canvassing for themselves through these petty measures.
Pluralism is a great concept, but if misunderstood, its results can be devastating and surely India must be aware of this pluralistic approach.
JAI HIND, JAI BHARAT
JAI MA BHARTI
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