Core values of Constitution being trampled upon in Modi regime

There are reports, released by Oxfam a few months back, on January 23, 2022 to be exact, that reveal that seventy percent of the national wealth in India is in the hands of select ten per cent. For the rest, it is thirst, hunger and a bleak present.

Dragging themselves towards the end of the road, they find the myth of the promise, the ‘Atma Nirbhar Bharat’. A mirage with a name under which the government has spelt out its economic policies, offering more concern than succour.

Among the major concerns is data fudging, which shrouds the truth. There are also attempts to force centralisation, destroying the spirit of federalism advocated by the Constitution. Our Constitution declares our country as a ‘Sovereign, Socialist, Secular, Democratic Republic’, with a parliamentary form of government which has a federal structure with unitary features. In the last more than half a century, there was not a single moment when these proclamations were challenged.

But now we face it every day. We see sovereignty getting surrendered in the hands of the ten percent. We are placed as a commodity in the market and the value is decided by factors that do not have any allegiance to socialism. In our journey from ‘service to servitude’ as someone famously named it, democracy is mocked at every moment when bulldozers demolish slums, shelters that are homes for those who suffer unemployment, without any source of income despite the promises of jobs in lakhs every year.

For the youth interested in joining the armed forces, a short term contractual recruitment scheme with the fancy name of ‘Agnipath’ was announced. At the end of this, they are being offered a small sum of money. After they get out, they face the same baggage of acute unemployment. Agnipath, in reality, does not allow one to go back, instead it burns everything to ashes without promising anything new.

The analysis of Hinduism takes one far deeper into its roots that are not only within the country, it has its source without too. Militancy has been imbibed from other than within.

When efforts were initiated to restore the ‘shine’ back to the country since the middle of the second decade of twenty first century, there was the echo of the call issued by Vinayak Damodar Savarkar (1883-1966). In his book ‘Hindutva: Who is a Hindu”, he had said without qualms: “Bring the entire politics into the folds of Hindutva, and militarise the entire Hindudom.” It was this call that turned into a slogan to establish Hindu identity and Hindu nationalism.

In the same context, he added further, it is Hindutva that creates Hindu identity, not Hinduism. He elaborated further that Hindutva is not only a mere word, it has in its folds the entire history. He said its analysis is beyond words. Savarkar does not stop there, he says that Hindutva is not only a religious or spiritual history, it is a complete history on its own.

What emerges from the entire initiative is an attempt to distort history to serve vested interests and also to destroy the great heritage of unity in multiplicity. At the root of all this is a conspiracy to establish dictatorship of the majority. Hindu nationalism was born to destroy all other communities and establish its own majority rule, and to achieve this goal, enmity and imposed superiority are imperative.

In the 1930s, when the right wing was trying to gain roots, Hindu nationalism was borrowed from European fascism to transform ‘different’ people into ‘enemies’. Militancy was added to Hinduism under the influence of authoritarian leaders such as Mussolini and Hitler. It was their so-called achievement to find a format for the new society they were keen to establish, and the name of the system was fascism.

The first step itself was complete servitude of the entire other half. But the times have changed. The surging crowd on the roads knows that India has become a country where inflation is wholesale. Rupee is at an all time low and wages are, if at all, too little to feed the family.

On the other hand, India is a heaven for the ten percent holding the nation’s wealth. Fascism has now a different face!

(IPA Service)

Views are personal