THE CONSTITUTION OF INDIA
PREAMBLE
WE, THE PEOPLE OF INDIA, having solemnly resolved to constitute India into a SOVEREIGN SOCIALIST SECULAR DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC and to secure to all its citizens:
JUSTICE, social, economic and political;
LIBERTY of thought, expression, belief, faith and worship;
EQUALITY of status and of opportunity;
and to promote among them all
FRATERNITY assuring the dignity of the individual and the unity and integrity of the Nation;
IN OUR CONSTITUENT ASSEMBLY this twenty-sixth day of November, 1949, do HEREBY ADOPT, ENACT AND GIVE TO OURSELVES THIS CONSTITUTION.
PREAMBLE
WE, THE PEOPLE OF INDIA, having solemnly resolved to constitute India into a SOVEREIGN SOCIALIST SECULAR DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC and to secure to all its citizens:
JUSTICE, social, economic and political;
LIBERTY of thought, expression, belief, faith and worship;
EQUALITY of status and of opportunity;
and to promote among them all
FRATERNITY assuring the dignity of the individual and the unity and integrity of the Nation;
IN OUR CONSTITUENT ASSEMBLY this twenty-sixth day of November, 1949, do HEREBY ADOPT, ENACT AND GIVE TO OURSELVES THIS CONSTITUTION.
What the f**k were they thinking !!!
Either this preamble to the Constitution of India is the biggest hoax perpetrated on an unsuspecting population of India by our founding fathers (and mothers ... let's not carried away with political correctness now) OR it has to be the biggest crime committed against India by our politicians.
So what is secularism. Sarva Dharma Samabhav (All Religions are Equal). It's a beautiful line and I can close my eyes and see those newsreels from the the past that had Gandhiji scurrying about in black and white with those glitches on film, with the Raghupati Raghav soundtrack in the background. Wow... what an image.
... and what a bloody joke !!!
India was never a secular country and never will be. The general populace is secular and tolerant, but our leaders are not. Till the time that gets corrected, we will never be truly secular and our constitution will remain just that - a joke.
While I was writing this, I read a few sections of the Constitution and I laughed at each section - more than what I laugh at Pakistan jokes. There was no point in reading the entire book. But I'm sure Bollywood can make a blockbuster tragi-comedy using that as a script.
The reason is simple. It appears that the Constitution was written by people who probably had either had no vision of the REAL future or had a surreal future in mind. While asking for reservations, Dr Ambedkar had never visualised the Gujjars setting fire to Delhi to be included in the ST list. He probably had not heard of my friend who converted to Buddhism and paid 500 rupees to get an OBC certificate to get admission to the prestigious Delhi College of Engineering (sorry - no names) under the Quota regime. The other authors had probably misread the word 'Equality'. Equality - what's that? I think it refers to the fact that Priyanka Gandhi's hubby dear gets priority clearance in airports while we have to wait in a queue, or maybe it refers to the sons of the various political personas who get a police escort while whistleblowers on organised crime like Satyendra Dubey get a posthumous medal.
The Pakistani constitution is much better than the Indian one. While ours, in ISO terms, has been baselined, signed off and version controlled, theirs seems to be work-in-progress. That's a great approach. Atleast their constitution reflects reality. Gen Busharraf (no, that's not a typo) seems to change it on a daily basis to suit his mood.
It's just like it is in the IT industry . A testing plan has to be written before the code is written so that all parameters are known. But ask any programmer and he'll tell you that he first writes the code and writes the test plan to correspond with the code. Hey - great idea. The plan matches ground reality.
So what's the point in having a Constitution anyway? I think it's just one of those things that look cool. I'm sure Nehru probably would stick his tongue out and tell Lord Mountbatten - Yo Mounty, you know, we've got a Constitution. It's 500 pages and it's leather bound - you've got nothing (that's right, the UK constitution is an unwritten one)
So we got a constitution that showed exactly how the Government would function, and how we would be taken care of, and how pigs would fly and how the pope would convert to hinduism !! or maybe the Indian parliament just wanted to write another book to counter Gandhi's - My Experiments with Truth.
It looked posh and half a rainforest was destroyed to print all those many copies of it which are doing scientific research (experiments with accumulation of dust) in various libraries around the world. It's heavy, has a great font and looks like it really means business.
So then our forefathers (grandfathers actually... Indian constitution isn't really that old) decided that we would be a secular country and that all religions were to be treated equal (start chuckling now)
As time went by, we had the VHP and the RSS which were - Oh so bad, so communal, and so hindu right wing. Everytime these chaps stepped out of line, our secular media would promptly jump in scream bloody murder.
Then we had the SIMI (students islamic movement india). Now, SIMI members were unhappy with the state of affairs in India so they would set off bombs here and there to make a point. Some of their funds were graciously donated to them by our non-interfering neighbour Pakistan. However, stalwarts like Mulayam Singh Yadav, who was prompt in criticising the VHP gave SIMI a clean chit - "SIMI are not terrorists". Wow... that IS secularism.
Then we had our most secular political party - The Congress, whose 'humare muslim bhai and humare hindu bhai' policies over the last 60 years have divided India along caste and religious lines.
Sadly, secularism has come to mean something completely different in India. I'm a Hindu by birth, but by virtue of my parents being well and truly secular, and my travels around the world, I'm not a fundamentalist. Infact, I'm not a practising Hindu either. I follow certain tenets of Hinduism and that's where religion ends for me. In my eyes, the nation is always above everything else. Everything else, and that includes religion, is secondary to India.
In India, secularism is another word for Hindu Bashing. It's quite funny really. A few months ago, with the whole Danish cartoonist controversy, a UP MLA offered 50 crores for the murder of the cartoonist in question. The official explaination - "It offended his religious sensibility". With this whole Rama Sethu controversy, a VHP member offered money for the head of Karunanidhi because Karunanidhi said 'Ram does not exist', and that has caused chaos. Everyone wants him to be arrested. Wait a sec... I'm not a practising Hindu and 'Ram does not exist' offends me. Gandhi himself would pray "Raghupati Raghav Raja Ram" - so was Gandhi deluded?
Certain Muslim Hyderabadi MLAs have declared that if Tasleema Nasreen stepped in Hyderabad, she would be lynched. These are the same people who tried to rough her up at a book launch. But that's fine, because Tasleema's writing offended their religious sensibilities.
while Hindu husbands get dragged to courts and their families get thrown in prison if the bride complains of dowry harrasment and if a jaat panchayat bans two people for marrying within the same gotra, it causes national outrage. Our 'secular' media is quick to point out the evils of the VHP, but no one bothers to check what the others are doing. Muslim women are being oppressed by the whole 'triple talaq' nonsense and no one says a word.
The Fatwa against Sania for wearing a mini-skirt or Shabana for planting a kiss on Nelson Mandela's cheek was laughed off, but if the VHP asks for the Rama Sethu to be declared a national monument on the basis of faith, the media goes berserk and the chief minister of Tamil Nadu goes on record to say that 'Ram did not exist'.
I AM OFFENDED. I'm not a religious person, but I am offended. Is this the same country that promised me equality and justice? Is this the country that taught me that everyone was equal and no one was above the law? Is this the same country that has existed for thousands of years by accepting anyone and everyone (except the dodgy Bangaldeshi illegal immigrants) The problem with this behaviour is simple. All the moderate hindus in the nation who have so far shunned the BJP for it's right wing policies will now flock to the BJP just because it's now no longer being seen as a fight between secular forces. It is now turning into a fight for the Hindu way of life.
That is what scares me to death. India has a wonderful future, but till the time we shed this pretence of being secular and start by truly turning secular, our future is doomed. We are being divided along religious lines and along lines of caste within religion. We have hostile neighbours, we have a huge population, we have crumbling infrastructure, the one thing we have that is woking for us is our Indian-ness and with idiots like Karunanidhi in power, we are in danger of losing that as well. Mayawati worked her magic in UP and galvanised the state cutting across caste and religion. If she can do it, why can't the others.
But until that happens, here is a small piece of my mind - start believing in secularism and start practising it yourself. Stop looking at others through the prism of religion but simply as Indians. Respect other religions. Have a cake at Christmas, drop a gift in your kid's stocking, make kheer for Id, light some crackers for diwali but just be a bit careful and try to hide during Rakhi.....
So what is secularism. Sarva Dharma Samabhav (All Religions are Equal). It's a beautiful line and I can close my eyes and see those newsreels from the the past that had Gandhiji scurrying about in black and white with those glitches on film, with the Raghupati Raghav soundtrack in the background. Wow... what an image.
... and what a bloody joke !!!
India was never a secular country and never will be. The general populace is secular and tolerant, but our leaders are not. Till the time that gets corrected, we will never be truly secular and our constitution will remain just that - a joke.
While I was writing this, I read a few sections of the Constitution and I laughed at each section - more than what I laugh at Pakistan jokes. There was no point in reading the entire book. But I'm sure Bollywood can make a blockbuster tragi-comedy using that as a script.
The reason is simple. It appears that the Constitution was written by people who probably had either had no vision of the REAL future or had a surreal future in mind. While asking for reservations, Dr Ambedkar had never visualised the Gujjars setting fire to Delhi to be included in the ST list. He probably had not heard of my friend who converted to Buddhism and paid 500 rupees to get an OBC certificate to get admission to the prestigious Delhi College of Engineering (sorry - no names) under the Quota regime. The other authors had probably misread the word 'Equality'. Equality - what's that? I think it refers to the fact that Priyanka Gandhi's hubby dear gets priority clearance in airports while we have to wait in a queue, or maybe it refers to the sons of the various political personas who get a police escort while whistleblowers on organised crime like Satyendra Dubey get a posthumous medal.
The Pakistani constitution is much better than the Indian one. While ours, in ISO terms, has been baselined, signed off and version controlled, theirs seems to be work-in-progress. That's a great approach. Atleast their constitution reflects reality. Gen Busharraf (no, that's not a typo) seems to change it on a daily basis to suit his mood.
It's just like it is in the IT industry . A testing plan has to be written before the code is written so that all parameters are known. But ask any programmer and he'll tell you that he first writes the code and writes the test plan to correspond with the code. Hey - great idea. The plan matches ground reality.
So what's the point in having a Constitution anyway? I think it's just one of those things that look cool. I'm sure Nehru probably would stick his tongue out and tell Lord Mountbatten - Yo Mounty, you know, we've got a Constitution. It's 500 pages and it's leather bound - you've got nothing (that's right, the UK constitution is an unwritten one)
So we got a constitution that showed exactly how the Government would function, and how we would be taken care of, and how pigs would fly and how the pope would convert to hinduism !! or maybe the Indian parliament just wanted to write another book to counter Gandhi's - My Experiments with Truth.
It looked posh and half a rainforest was destroyed to print all those many copies of it which are doing scientific research (experiments with accumulation of dust) in various libraries around the world. It's heavy, has a great font and looks like it really means business.
So then our forefathers (grandfathers actually... Indian constitution isn't really that old) decided that we would be a secular country and that all religions were to be treated equal (start chuckling now)
As time went by, we had the VHP and the RSS which were - Oh so bad, so communal, and so hindu right wing. Everytime these chaps stepped out of line, our secular media would promptly jump in scream bloody murder.
Then we had the SIMI (students islamic movement india). Now, SIMI members were unhappy with the state of affairs in India so they would set off bombs here and there to make a point. Some of their funds were graciously donated to them by our non-interfering neighbour Pakistan. However, stalwarts like Mulayam Singh Yadav, who was prompt in criticising the VHP gave SIMI a clean chit - "SIMI are not terrorists". Wow... that IS secularism.
Then we had our most secular political party - The Congress, whose 'humare muslim bhai and humare hindu bhai' policies over the last 60 years have divided India along caste and religious lines.
Sadly, secularism has come to mean something completely different in India. I'm a Hindu by birth, but by virtue of my parents being well and truly secular, and my travels around the world, I'm not a fundamentalist. Infact, I'm not a practising Hindu either. I follow certain tenets of Hinduism and that's where religion ends for me. In my eyes, the nation is always above everything else. Everything else, and that includes religion, is secondary to India.
In India, secularism is another word for Hindu Bashing. It's quite funny really. A few months ago, with the whole Danish cartoonist controversy, a UP MLA offered 50 crores for the murder of the cartoonist in question. The official explaination - "It offended his religious sensibility". With this whole Rama Sethu controversy, a VHP member offered money for the head of Karunanidhi because Karunanidhi said 'Ram does not exist', and that has caused chaos. Everyone wants him to be arrested. Wait a sec... I'm not a practising Hindu and 'Ram does not exist' offends me. Gandhi himself would pray "Raghupati Raghav Raja Ram" - so was Gandhi deluded?
Certain Muslim Hyderabadi MLAs have declared that if Tasleema Nasreen stepped in Hyderabad, she would be lynched. These are the same people who tried to rough her up at a book launch. But that's fine, because Tasleema's writing offended their religious sensibilities.
while Hindu husbands get dragged to courts and their families get thrown in prison if the bride complains of dowry harrasment and if a jaat panchayat bans two people for marrying within the same gotra, it causes national outrage. Our 'secular' media is quick to point out the evils of the VHP, but no one bothers to check what the others are doing. Muslim women are being oppressed by the whole 'triple talaq' nonsense and no one says a word.
The Fatwa against Sania for wearing a mini-skirt or Shabana for planting a kiss on Nelson Mandela's cheek was laughed off, but if the VHP asks for the Rama Sethu to be declared a national monument on the basis of faith, the media goes berserk and the chief minister of Tamil Nadu goes on record to say that 'Ram did not exist'.
I AM OFFENDED. I'm not a religious person, but I am offended. Is this the same country that promised me equality and justice? Is this the country that taught me that everyone was equal and no one was above the law? Is this the same country that has existed for thousands of years by accepting anyone and everyone (except the dodgy Bangaldeshi illegal immigrants) The problem with this behaviour is simple. All the moderate hindus in the nation who have so far shunned the BJP for it's right wing policies will now flock to the BJP just because it's now no longer being seen as a fight between secular forces. It is now turning into a fight for the Hindu way of life.
That is what scares me to death. India has a wonderful future, but till the time we shed this pretence of being secular and start by truly turning secular, our future is doomed. We are being divided along religious lines and along lines of caste within religion. We have hostile neighbours, we have a huge population, we have crumbling infrastructure, the one thing we have that is woking for us is our Indian-ness and with idiots like Karunanidhi in power, we are in danger of losing that as well. Mayawati worked her magic in UP and galvanised the state cutting across caste and religion. If she can do it, why can't the others.
But until that happens, here is a small piece of my mind - start believing in secularism and start practising it yourself. Stop looking at others through the prism of religion but simply as Indians. Respect other religions. Have a cake at Christmas, drop a gift in your kid's stocking, make kheer for Id, light some crackers for diwali but just be a bit careful and try to hide during Rakhi.....
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