UPA AGENDA - divide hindu society thru minoritification and reservation

Bizarre move to divide Hindu society
By Shyam Khosla

The UPA Government's claim that it proposes to grant minority status
to Jains and Kashmiri Pundits to empower these communities is
absolutely bogus. It is no one's case that Jains are a disadvantaged
or deprived community or they are vulnerable to persecution because
they constitute a miniscule part of the country's population. As for
the Kashmiri Pundits, granting a minority status to them will not
obliterate the horrendous atrocities committed on them. They were
driven out of their homes and hearths as part of the religious
cleansing by anti-Indian elements and the only lasting solution of
their uprooting is to create a congenial and peaceful atmosphere in J&K
so that they can return to their homes confident of their safety and
dignity. Certain self-style leaders of the community may grab the
lollipop offered by the Government but the large sections of
self-respecting Pundits will settle for nothing short of restoration of
their properties-illegally occupied or "purchased" by
non-Pundits-and their rehabilitation in the Valley. The move to grant
minority status to more and more religious and linguistic groups is a
bizarre move that will divide India and lead to further fragmentation
of the Hindu society.

The Government of the day is following in the footsteps of the colonial
rulers who after the first war of Independence in 1857, that we lost,
felt threatened and fine-tuned a strategy to wean away the Muslims from
the national mainstream and weaken the Hindu society by encouraging
small religious groups to claim separate identity by denying their
larger Hindu identity. The process was set in motion by introducing a
separate column for Sikhs-without saying who is a Sikh-in a special
census conducted in Punjab in 1868. They took the process ahead in the
census conducted in 1881 by defining Sikhs as Khalsa that observe Panch
Kakars (Five Ks) ordained by Guru Govind Singh. The British introduced
a separate column for Jains in 1881. In the census held in 1891,
separate columns were introduced for Arya Samajis and Brahmo Samajis as
well. Leaders of certain religious groups did try to secure for their
communities a minority status but their claims were rejected by
judicial pronouncements.

The latest in the series is the August 8, 2005 landmark judgment by the
Supreme Court of India through which it dismissed the Minority
Commission's plea to grant minority status to Jains saying, if only
on the basis of a different religious thought or less numerical
strength or lack of health, wealth, education, power or social rights,
a claim of a section of Indian society to the status of 'minority'
is considered and conceded, there would be no end to such claims in a
society as multi-religious and multi-linguistic as India is. It went on
to say that a claim by one group of citizens would lead to a similar
claim by another group of citizens and conflict and strife would ensue.
The apex court bench headed by the then Chief Justice of India, Justice
R.C. Lohati, made the following significant observation, "The
so-called minority communities like Sikhs and Jains were not treated as
national minorities at the time of framing the Constitution. Sikhs and
Jains, in fact, have throughout been treated as part of the wider Hindu
community that has different sects, sub-sects, faiths, modes of worship
and religious philosophies. In various codified customary laws like
Hindu Marriage Act, Hindu Succession Act, Hindu Adoption and
Maintenance Act and other laws of pre and post-Constitution period,
definition of 'Hindu' included all sects, sub-sects of Hindu
religions including Sikhs and Jains".

The Government's move is a blatant defiance of the Supreme Court's
order and the constitutional provisions. Explanation II of the Article
25, clearly states that the reference to Hindus in sub clause (b) of
clause (2) of the said Article shall be construed as including a
reference to persons professing the Sikhs, the Jains or Buddhist
religions, and the reference to Hindu religious institutions in the
said sub clause shall be construed accordingly. The Congress has seldom
shown any sensitivity to constitutional and legal niceties. It is,
therefore, not surprising that it's acting in a manner that amounts
to contempt of the court and utter disregard for the fundamental law of
the country. Its purpose is simple. It wants to woo various sections of
society with "concessions" that may or may not benefit the
communities concerned but will give space to the ruling party to
exploit these communities for electoral purposes. The hidden agenda, of
course, is to further divide the Hindu society so that the Hindu
nationalists are weakened.

Why everyone from a service and spiritual society like Ramakrishna
Mission to a miniscule religious group like Jains, petition various
organs of the Government to grant them minority status? One obvious
reason is that every community wants to enjoy freedom in running
educational and other institutions. As of now, the government can and
does interfere with the functioning of private institutions even in
matters of admissions, fees, recruitment of teachers and other
employees and the content of what they should teach. The simple
solutions is that we move on to a regime that gives identical, less
regulated freedom to all institutions run by private parties regardless
of the identity of the religious group running it. This is not to
suggest that the Government should have no mechanism to regulate
institutions, particularly those funded by Government. However, above a
reasonable threshold, all institutions run by religious groups should
be allowed freedom to administer. If this is done, there will be less
enthusiasm for minority status. At a more fundamental level, vote-bank
politics is responsible for the clamour to get minority status. More
and more religious and social groups feel that they will get benefits
from "secular" political parties if they are able to establish a
separate identity and get a minority status. Our Constitution
guarantees equal rights and freedoms to all citizens. Provision of
minority rights in the Constitution has led to the proliferation of
separate identities and rights. These provisions need to be reviewed.
Our goal should be to establish a society where citizenship rights are
independent of religious identity. Special rights and privileges on the
basis of religious and sub religious identities are a great hindrance
to the development of a strong and integrated India.

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