Congress is full of dilemmas. Shashi Tharoor's 'Hindu Pakistan' comment proves that
Peddling soft Hindutva and championing secularism cannot come without a price.
Shashi Tharoor's language skills are beyond brilliant. The problem is that he might not be properly understood by his readers or the audience. Probably, not even by the “opinion forming” 6pm debates, sizzling and elevating, which pay unique tribute to the freedom of expression in the land every day!
The Congress leader, in all fairness, was doing his job — expressing grave concern about what will happen to the minorities, if the ruling front returns to power.
The howl of protests that went up was on expected lines — opinions are voiced to evoke reactions. Similar opposition was voiced to ex-VP Hamid Ansari's suggestion that Sharia courts can be allowed to function as different communities have different rules.
He was of the view that as our laws recognise that each community can have its own rules, there should be bodies to arbitrate those laws.
The problem is that such bodies have no legal sanction. It is difficult to “see” what he meant, but the message is clear.
There are a few issues with such a line of thought: It applies to only one community, a community that has been ruthlessly exploited by the so-called secular parties for their votes. A casual look at the highlights of Justice Sachar's report would be adequate to understand their condition.
Equality and secularism, as enshrined in our hallowed book, has few takers. Everyone swears by them and nobody cares about them. They are sacrificed, almost daily, at the altar of politics, casteism, religion, purchasing power and what not.
If you live in one of our towns or villages, interact with people — common people going about their common ways — you shall find more reverence and belief among them than you see among our leaders. Cities are way too big and crowded to display homogeneous sentiments.
A Uniform Civil Code would not only ease the burden on the legal system, it would qualify legal equality for all, irrespective of their religions.
It would gradually weed out the negativities in the personal laws of the communities. Such a probability excites the intelligence of the young, educated, opinionated people, the majority of our population.
In a dispassionate analysis, you can find a lot of shortcomings in the present dispensation's “rule”.
Playing the politics of division can be one such charge. But then, in a country of such diverseness, any divisive policy would lead to automatic counter-mobilisation. BJP has only cashed in on it.
But what is the primary opposition party doing?
Attacking a party for endangering India's secular fabric, then defending personal laws, advocating non-interference on personal laws of communities and insinuating that BJP is turning India into Hindu Pakistan ruled by Hindu Taliban is something very contradictory.
Time and again, BJP has shown that it would latch on to every opportunity to further its cause. Home minister Rajnath Singh, while addressing Parliament on the No-Confidence motion, slammed the comments on Hindu Taliban and Hindu Pakistan, without naming Tharoor. He tacitly attributed it to the Congress party, which shows that the party is primed for Lok Sabha 2019 and the Congress is either too relaxed or careless in its approach.
Every voter is definitely not supportive of all of BJP’s policies, actions, or the lack of. While the BJP has always spoken about one law for all and Congress has championed secularism, any departure may have political costs in the long run.
Different set of rules for different communities automatically prove BJP's charge that Congress is not truly secular.
Similarly, talking about inclusive development and leaving out one-fifth of the population is not a fair game.
Besides, personal laws of many other communities contain antiquated clauses that must be restructured or removed — for the sake of equality.