Politics is a subject of my interest along with many other subjects, and as the major part of my life was spent in India I am interested in Indian politics more than American politics. As far as I remember Indian politics revolves around these two terms, "communal" and "secular." BJP was already an active player in Indian politics when I started taking an interest in it and the use of these two terms has been very common since then. The oldest and largest political party in India, the Indian National Congress or Congress (I) takes immense pride in calling itself a "secular" party and they (and many other parties with similar ideology) love to label BJP and most of its allies as "communal" mostly because of their involvement in Ayodhya Ram Mandir issue (which gave them chance to come in power) and pro-Hindu stance in general. This blame game has been going on for decades. Both sides try to fool voters by using these two labels that's why I call this a "communal and secular trap" for Indian voters and we all are badly trapped in it so badly that many other important issues like corruption, good governance, development, job creation, women empowerment, and social security, hardly come into discussion during elections. Secularism and communalism always become major electoral issues. Electoral battles are always fought on communal or secular grounds and voters are emotionally challenged and lured into one of these traps. Political parties also know that this strategy works very well and that's why they are using it again and again in every election. It will be interesting to see how long Indian voters keep on falling into the same trap.
Religion and caste are integral parts of Indian politics. Most parties select their candidates based on these two criteria, therefore, many times candidate's religion or caste becomes his/her biggest qualification. I have seen educated voters voting exclusively based on these things, they just vote for a particular candidate because he/she belongs to their caste, and don't even check the suitability of that candidate for that particular post. These people fail to understand that politics and religion are two different fields and should be treated separately, but because of so much clever blending of religion with politics, people fail to separate them. Both (political parties and religious institutes) like to control people by controlling their thought processes and they both use similar strategies that's why it's not surprising that they take the help of each other to keep their control over the masses.
I wonder how a country where your caste and religion are asked on every official form, where a movie or a minor incident could trigger communal riots and ethnic violence can call itself secular? The spirit of secularism has been on the verge of dying by multiple cuts in the last many years. The word "secular" has become like an abuse and people ridicule anyone who dares to associate with this word. So-called secular parties blame communal parties for majority appeasement and accuse them of minority intimidation and in turn, so-called communal parties accuse secular parties of minority appeasement and blame them for the negligence of the majority community. This blame game has been going on for years and because of this, there is a polarization between the majority and minority communities. In reality, both the majority and minorities are struggling with neither of them getting any benefit. The real beneficiaries in this fight are the political parties, poor voters are still struggling with their day to day problems, still waiting for good governance, but as long as they don't come out of this deadly trap their wait will continue.
Religion and caste are integral parts of Indian politics. Most parties select their candidates based on these two criteria, therefore, many times candidate's religion or caste becomes his/her biggest qualification. I have seen educated voters voting exclusively based on these things, they just vote for a particular candidate because he/she belongs to their caste, and don't even check the suitability of that candidate for that particular post. These people fail to understand that politics and religion are two different fields and should be treated separately, but because of so much clever blending of religion with politics, people fail to separate them. Both (political parties and religious institutes) like to control people by controlling their thought processes and they both use similar strategies that's why it's not surprising that they take the help of each other to keep their control over the masses.
I wonder how a country where your caste and religion are asked on every official form, where a movie or a minor incident could trigger communal riots and ethnic violence can call itself secular? The spirit of secularism has been on the verge of dying by multiple cuts in the last many years. The word "secular" has become like an abuse and people ridicule anyone who dares to associate with this word. So-called secular parties blame communal parties for majority appeasement and accuse them of minority intimidation and in turn, so-called communal parties accuse secular parties of minority appeasement and blame them for the negligence of the majority community. This blame game has been going on for years and because of this, there is a polarization between the majority and minority communities. In reality, both the majority and minorities are struggling with neither of them getting any benefit. The real beneficiaries in this fight are the political parties, poor voters are still struggling with their day to day problems, still waiting for good governance, but as long as they don't come out of this deadly trap their wait will continue.
Thanks for reading and please share your views about this topic.
(Copyright: Vinay Thakur. Please contact the author for re-posting or publishing)
