SC must take notice of Hegde’s remarks subverting India’s Constitution

Hindutva juggernaut runs amok

Prime Minister Narendra Modi's pet bullet train project between Mumbai and Ahmedabad, to be operational in 2022, may never materialize as, by then, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) may not be ruling India and hopefully national priorities would change for more earthly causes. 'Achche-din', as promised by Modi immediately after taking over as PM in 2014, may well still be decades away. However, the Hindutva juggernaut under the present BJP/RSS rulers is running amok despite India still being committed to a democratic-secular polity. Ironically, the Hindutva rulers who took oath to remain faithful to the democratic-secular Constitution of India continue indulging in nefarious anti-national activities. In fact, there seems to be an ongoing competition amongst them on who would inflict the maximum damage to the present constitutional polity of India.

The making of a Hindutva zealot

The latest character from this Hindutva demolition squad to decry and denigrate India’s constitutional polity is Anant Kumar Hegde, the blue-eyed boy of both the RSS and PM Modi. Hegde, who learnt the Hindutva tricks of polarization while threatening to convert the Guru Dattatreya Baba Budan Dargah in the Baba Budan Giri Range in Chickmagalur into 'Ayodhya of the South', declared war on the Indian Constitution. It must be noted that he was made a central minister despite the fact that he was caught on camera hitting a doctor, grabbing him by the throat and slamming him against a wall. Hegde was furious because he felt the doctors were not paying enough attention to his mother, who had suffered multiple fractures after a fall at home. He also gave a call for uprooting Islam.

Hegde attacks secularism

This Hindutva champion, while addressing a public meeting (December 24, 2017) organised by the Brahman Yuva Parishad in Karnataka’s Koppal district , declared that the BJP had come to power to "change the Constitution,” which it would do in the “near future”. He was immensely scornful of the principle of secularism. According to him, secularists are “people without parentage or who don’t know their bloodline.”

“They don’t know themselves. They don’t know their parents, but they call themselves secular,” Hegde was quoted as saying.

“If someone says I am secular, I get suspicious. I hope there are no secularists here”.

While denigrating secularists, he also raised the issue of their parenthood, declaring them as “illegitimate children.” Thus, he not only spread canard against the present upholders of a democratic-secular India but also denigrated great leaders like Bhagat Singh, Chandershekhar Azad, Ashfaqullah Khan, MK Gandhi, Rabindranath Tagore, Sardar Patel, Dr BR Ambedkar, Abul Kalam Azad, Subhash Chandra Bose, Jawahar Lal Nehru, all of who dedicated their lives to the cause of an inclusive Indian society.

Bye Indian nationalism

Hegde made it clear that though word secular was part of the Indian Constitution, "this will change in the near future.” Hegde’s India could not be an all-inclusive society but where people would identify themselves as per the religion they profess. Hegde stressed that he would appreciate people knowing their roots “if they identify themselves with their religion.” According to Hegde, there is no such concept as Indian but only Hindus, Muslims, Christians and so on. Thus, Hegde has presented himself as a votary of religion-based identity of Indians, like the Muslim League.

Love for Manusmriti

As if all this was not enough, he went on to glorify Manusmriti as an ancient Hindu law. Defending BJP’s-RSS’ love for Manusmriti, Hegde declared: “They talk about Manusmriti today, but it’s ancient. Today, what is being used is Ambedkar Smriti, and before that it was the Parashar Smriti. Smriti simply means ancient laws. If you don’t know history, you are foolish.”

Hegde, in fact, was underlining an old demand of the RSS -- that of replacing democratic-secular Constitution of India, with a Hindu rashtra, where Manusmriti, which decrees a sub-human status to Hindu women and Shudras would be the law of the land. When the Constituent Assembly of India passed the Constitution of India on November 26, 1949, the RSS was not happy. Its mouthpiece, Organiser, in an editorial on November 30, 1949, complained: "But in our Constitution, there is no mention of the unique constitutional development in ancient Bharat. Manu’s laws were written long before Lycurgus of Sparta or Solon of Persia. To this day, his laws, as enunciated in the Manusmriti ,excite the admiration of the world and elicit spontaneous obedience and conformity. But to our constitutional pundits. that means nothing."

By demanding promulgation of laws of Manu in an Independent India, the RSS was simply following its mentor, philosopher and guide VD Savarkar, who had argued: "Manusmriti is that scripture which is the most worshipable after Vedas for our Hindu Nation and which from ancient times has become the basis of our culture-customs, thought and practice. This book for centuries has codified the spiritual and divine march of our nation. Even today, the rules which are followed by crores of Hindus in their lives and practice are based on Manusmriti. Today, Manusmriti is Hindu Law."

The glorification of Manusmriti in a programme of an organization of Brahmins by Hegde was quite meaningful. As per the Manu Code, if Shudras are to be given most stringent punishments for even petty actions, such as sitting with people from higher castes, the same code of Manu is very lenient towards Brahmins. Shloka 380 in Chapter VIII bestows profound love on Brahmins and decrees: “Let him never slay a Brahmana, though he have committed all (possible) crimes; let him banish such an (offender), leaving all his property (to him) and (his body) unhurt.”

Prez and SC must intervene

It is shocking that a central minister is brazenly declaring his and his government's plan to undo a democratic-secular India. It is anti-national declaration, betrayal of the ideals of the freedom struggle, a sabotage of the wisdom of the Constituent Assembly of India and open defiance of dozens of decisions of the Supreme Court in which the highest court of justice decreed secularism and democracy as 'basic features' of the Indian polity.

The Supreme Court of India must take a suo motu cognizance of Hegde's crime and order filing of a case against him for planning subversion of the Indian polity. Moreover, President of the Indian Republic, the so-called Dalit icon, must order the removal of Hegde from the Modi government and order his punishment for anti-national call.

Sadly, with ministers like Anant Kumar Hegde around, no foreign enemy is required to destroy a democratic-secular India. It is high time that custodians of Indian polity should take stern action against this subversion from within.