Have Secular politicians & their Intellectual Backers Lost their Moorings?

Refusal of Bengal and Karnataka state governments to broadcast PM Modi’s lecture to youth on 9^th September is not a show of political one-upmanship. It has far deeper implications beyond TV studio noise.

To my mind there are three aspects of this episode –

I.                    Socio-cultural aspect – Swami Vivekananda  is the most inspiring icon for youth even after 150 years. Ask any social worker in India, irrespective of caste, creed or faith; he/she would have read Vivekananda and still reads him when in doubt. He took Hindu Vedic knowledge to the world and commanded new respect for India when it used to be looked upon as a backward, ignorant and uncivilised country, courtesy British. By the time he left this world at young age of 39 years he had fired up imagination and self-respect of Indians. He revived the national spirit. That he is still found inspiring by youth shows the timelessness  of his writings and work. He coined the idea of ‘Nar seva hi Narayan seva hai’ – Serving Human being is truly serving Supreme being.

By being petty about celebrating 125^th year of his historic Chicago address that took India to the world in true glory, Mamata  and Siddaramaiah have shown their utter ignorance about Swami Vivekananda’s work. He talked of tolerance of India but our politicians showed intolerance to his idea. In an urge to insult PM Modi, they demeaned Swami Vivekananda and degraded themselves.

Nobody owns national icons, they are national assets. By linking Swami ji to BJP/RSS, they have repeated the mistake of Congress led secular brigade who have tried hard to make people forget all other national heroes at the cost of a few chosen leaders that fit into Left vision of Independent India.

II.                  Political aspect – In their effort to not let BJP score any political points, they have mixed the role of a PM and a prominent leader of a political party and gifted away points to BJP.

Any political observer knows that PM Modi play hard politics when he is fighting an election, but is apolitical and objective when he dons PM’s cap. His actions in last 3 years clearly show this.

In their hate and jealousy for highly powerful and popular PM who today seems unbeatable; and to show certain vote banks that they can stand upto Modi, they chose wrong symbolism. A national icon was turned into a political punching bag. People at large won’t take kindly to it. Swami Vivekananda was not just a Hindu monk, not just a Bengali celebrity but national hero of cultural awakening.

Siddaramaiah in his urge to retain power, has been playing reckless politics. This act will be an act that may prove to be a nail in his coffin.  Unfortunately, it is not the first time he has played such cynical politics. Congress with only one government left in a large state is following him like a lamb. It is Congress who will be sacrificed at the altar of political expediency.

Mamata’s obsession with communal politics; playing Muslims against Hindus at the cost of Hindus may not immediately affect her as she depends on bulk Muslim votes by making Hindus feel second class citizens. The national now knows about her inaction in riots of Malda and Dulagarh. People know about her feeding Maulvis and Muezzins from Taxpayers’ money. They remember stopping of age old Durga Puja and visrajan etc. She gifted Red-light beacon to rabid communal Mullah Barkati who threatened PM Modi, but showed Red-Light for Swami Vivekananda. Message is not lost. This is the ugliest face of so-called Secular politics. It is highly divisive and distorted, whether you take Western view or Indian view.

III.                Constitutional aspect  – I am most worried about this dimension. India is a democratic country by its innate nature. We let people have their say, so some transgressions are taken in our stride. But, by blocking the Prime Minister for a totally non-political programme to inspire youth,  these Chief Minsters have crossed the fine line of federalism based on Unitary nature Indian State. 

Will states, now on, behave like individual Republics? Was this ever the vision of founding fathers of the Indian Constitution? There are clear lines drawn between rights of the states and the centre. Inspite of political fights, people in power have generally avoided breaching the Constitutional bounds.

There are occasional politicians whose acts tell us that some areas are still grey. An Arvind Kejriwal ranting against the LG and the PM, a Mamata going epileptic against security forces doing their job or some leaders asking military to give proofs of its actions in the course of national duty have shown limitations of stretching  the Constitution against such political chicanery.

Is it necessary to test the resilience of the Constitution and the relations between the Centre and the States? PM Modi has been strengthening states from the day he became PM, while there were subtle and not so efforts all through earlier years to keep States beholden to the Centre through Budgets and Planning Commission.

Blocking of PM is a grey area where these anarchic CMs have again tried to test the sanctity and strength of Constitution in a blatant way and played with a delicate balance of power between states and centre.

Political parties should realize that in a Democracy no political party has received perennial mandate. So, any dirt you throw up can drop on your own face. Congress realized it when it lost power in 1998 but the innate sense of entitlement didn’t die and it behaved in worst possible way in next 10 years when it won power back.  In its loss in 2014, Congress has still not learnt this cardinal principle. By siding with people like Siddaramiaha and Mamata, it will be host to its own petard.

As long as political parties gamble with their future, it is their funeral, but to gamble with Indian Constitution needs to be questioned.

First published on the newsportal ThePrint on 15-9-2017

https://theprint.in/2017/09/15/nobody-owns-swami-vivekananda/