I have lived almost 18 years in this country. Almost every day, I am reminded of how great this country is, how we gained our Independence, how old and precious our history is, and how we live in unity despite being so diverse. We have many different cultures, languages and religions, but we still stand as a single nation.
We have been hearing these same lines for years and years. And it seems that there is no loophole in this scenario because no one dares to say that above all religions and cultures in India, there stands a single dictator: Hinduism.
The dictatorship of a person or cause rises only when large systems run aggressive agendas for it. In this case, the main system pushing for the dictatorial rise of Hinduism is Indian politics. Since Independence, politicians have used religion to manipulate people. Being in a majority, Hindus were the biggest target for politicians. Thus, since Independence, politicians have controlled our governing system by manipulating the Hindus.
For example, our most famous Hindu serial, Ramayana, was started by our government in 1987, when the Congress government was in power and being led by Rajiv Gandhi. At that time, Congress was facing the allegation of the Bofors deal scam. Starting Ramayana at that time indicates two loopholes in our system:
1. How the government uses religion to manipulate people: The allegation on the then PM was harsh and the whole country was protesting against it. All media channels were talking about the scam. People were protesting against it and due to all this, the dominance of Congress was fading. To restore that dominance and distract people from this topic, the party used religion as a weapon and decided to start Ramayana on DD National. This is one of many examples.
2. The blotched reality of secularism in India: It is clearly mentioned in our Constitution and Preamble that our country is secular. It is shocking to think now that the government of a secular country started a show based on ancient Hindu books. The same thing happens in my city Kurukshetra as well. Every year, the government here conducts a 10-day festival on Bhagavad Geeta, the holy book of Hindus.
Last year, the Supreme Court’s decision on the Ram Mandir was in the favour of the Hindu Maha Sabha. Being a secular country, we could have made a decision that was good for everyone. For instance, we could have opened a school in that place where children of every religion can study together.
Let us see Indian secularism from another view. Our current ruling party, the BJP, has direct relations with an organisation called the RSS, which is officially a Hindu organisation. The BJP uses religion as its main campaigning mechanism. Most of the BJP workers and ministers openly spread hate for other religions.
Till today, we don’t have any explanation for the Gujarat riots against the Muslims. And yet, the BJP says that it is a secular party.
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