NATIONAL POLITICS

CPI(M): Politbureau Statement on Need for Third Force, 4 March, 1996

 The hawala scandal has so far claimed seven union ministers of the Rao government. Never before have so many central ministers been indicted for corruption. This alone warranted the resignation of the prime minister for presiding over such a corrupt regime. More important, the name of the prime minister himself figures in the case. The fact that for four years, the CBI under the prime minister's charge refused to act is the most serious indictment against Shri Narasimha Rao. The defection of the JMM MPs by bribery is another serious charge which has to be investigated. In the light of the latest directive of the Supreme Court asking the CBI not to report to or receive instructions from the administrative authority in charge of the CBI, the prime minister should resign by the principle of accountability and conforming to elementary standards in public life.

The hawala case has not only exposed the Congress(1) leadership as the fountainhead of corruption but has also devastated the BJP's image. The indictments of its president, L.K. Advani, its chief minister in Delhi, Madanlal Khurana, and other leaders have resoundingly forfeited the BJP's claim to be a party which can provide an alternative to the Congress Equally serious are the BJP's links with the underworld. The arrest under TADA of its Gonda MP, Brijbhushan Sharan Singh, for sheltering Dawood Ibrahim's men has dramatically illustrated this.

The Shiv Sena-BJP government's decision to wind up the Sri Krishna Commission's enquiry into the Mumbai riots is a brazen step intended to cover up their complicity in the anti-minority violence. This is another instance of the BJP's willingness to trample upon the rights of the minorities.

The discrediting of both the Congress(I) and the BJP has created a situation favorable for the Left, democratic and secular forces to rally the people. The Polit Bureau underlined the urgency of sorting out the problems in constituting the third force. The Polit Bureau requested the Janata Dal president to immediately take the initiative to cement the alliance with the Samajwadi Party. The rally organized by the Samajwadi Party in Delhi shows that such an alliance will meet with good response from the people.

(Source: The People's Democracy, 10 March, 1996)

Narasimha Rao wants to see a BJP government ruling the country.

-Kalimuddin Shams,

Minister in West Bengal Government Republican Party:

Views of Prakash Ambedkar, MP

On Muslim Vote

In fact, the Muslims have to form their own group in order to protect their votes from division. It is up to them to support anyone, even if it is the BJP or the Congress but they must do so in the form of a group, unitedly with all their strength. This is the only way of getting their views accepted.

On Babari Masjid

The Babari Masjid will not be reconstructed on its original site, not even if the Third Force come to power. This is my personal opinion. You need time to resolve any emotional issue. Just like the problem of Marathwada University in Aurangabad. The Babari Masjid question will take time to he resolved. Only when there is proper atmosphere, then the Masjid question will be resolved.

(Source: The Urdu Times, 9 February, 1996)

Collapse of the Front-runners

Editorial, The Pioneer, 25 March, 1996

The very concept of a third front has been flawed from the start. This is because the proposed political entity was based on the fallacy that mere radical rhetoric could bring together such disparate groups as the Janata Dal, Samajwadi Party and the BSP to make common cause with the Left. There was also considerable naivete in the assumption that a mythical rainbow coalition between the Backwards, Dalits and Muslims would force politicians to forget their partisan ends and wage a holy war against the Congress and the BJP. The fact of the matter is that an overwhelming majority of leaders of the proposed third front have scant regard for ideology or principles. Nor do they have even the basic political horse sense to work out limited compromises for the sake of power. The nation may well be grateful that the third front has collapsed before it came to power.

MUSLIM INDIA

presses its Grief at the Amise of its Advisory Editor

Professor Rasheeduddin Khan

 Scholar Political Theorist. Academician Parliamentarian Fighter for World Peace Social Justice and Secular Order

Conveys its deep condolences to the Bereaved family and to all his Friends, Colleagues and Students all over the Country

May his soul rest in Sternal Peace: Amin!

Minister in the West Bengal Government

New Delhi                                                  Syed Shalabaddin

1 May 1996)                                                     Editor

Seema Mustafa on Token Secularism

After Independence Kidwais and Azads were replaced with Muslim leaders having little to no links with the grassroots. This generation of Muslim leaders depended largely on government largesse and patronage for survival and did more harm than good to the community as a whole. Muslims remained backward, their real problems unsolved while individuals from the elitist families, under Congress patronage, became. presidents, ambassadors, governors, head of various minority institutions. The Muslim Personal Law Board is one notorious example of government patronage. The rampant corruption in the Waqf Board and the Haj Committee full of government appointees is another. The ghettoization and intense politicization of Muslim- run educational institutions is a third.

The demolition of the Babari Masjid woke up the Muslims to their actual state of affairs. The effort now is to see how they can change the agenda for themselves, and how they can ensure that the real issues of the community are addressed meaningfully. At one stage is the initial reaction of anger and hostility which manifests itself emotionally in the kind of demonstrations against the Congress Party by the Muslims in Bareilly and more. recently at Kanpur.

At the second level is a general disillusionment with the so-called Muslim leaders and the clergy and a growing awareness that secularism is necessary for the development and progress of the community as a whole.

At a third level is the hesitant secular and intellectual activity among Muslim liberals which is gaining momentum. In between are the other signals that can retard this progress besides creating havoc.

There is the demand of political parties, led by the Congress of course, for reservation for Muslims. But all political leaders, with one eye on the Muslim vote are falling in line with this demand. Even the so-called secular centrist parties.

Urdu of course, remains a favorite political pastime and is projected as an essentially Muslim issue.

There is murmuring of a Muslim president, or at least a Muslim vice-president. The Congress has already appointed Muslims as PCC chiefs in at least two states- the habit of tokenism certainly dies hard.

The BJP has taken full advantage of the recent Congress forays into minority politics And between the Congress and the BJP it is very easy to forget that the lot of Muslims in India needs to be addressed as a real issue. That nothing has been done, in concrete terms, to improve the lot of the country's largest minority. It is true that the Muslims themselves, particularly those with better education and better means have remained largely indifferent themselves, but now there is a distinct change. And it is imperative that political parties claiming to have the Muslims interest at heart, do not just realize this but address themselves to this very significant change. Secular efforts to promote education, reform, rights within the community must be supported and encouraged. This cannot be done by evolving a real agenda directed towards the growth and development of the minorities. This approach will help the minorities grow out of their ghettos, and deprive the Hindutva brigade of its most potent weapon, namely, minority appeasement... Secularism is the only answer, and at concerted effort by all is required. The state must realize its responsibility. Unfortunately, there is no indication of a change of policy a change of heart. The president of secular India recently visited the Somnath Temple and "dedicated" it to the Nation. Secularism at work?

(Source: The Asian Age, 13 January, 1996)

Makarand Paranjape on Religion and Secularism

We Indians have made a fetish out of the word (Secularism). It is not only included in the Preamble to our Constitution, but is today at the very vortex of a long- drawn political dogfight. The word caries more weight in India than commoner political epithets like liberal, conservative or socialist, which are the usually invoked political self-definitions elsewhere in the world.

Nowhere else will a person proudly declare that he or she is secular. Nowhere else will a government try its level best to prove 'its secular credentials'. Nowhere else will a major political party make either secularism or its absence its main electioneering plank. Nowhere else would the charge of 'pseudo-secularism' be hurled as the ultimate political abuse upon one's opponents. Nowhere else will a whole civilizational crisis hinge on the conflicting and contrasting definitions of this world.

The world itself has come to acquire several shades of meanings in India. A definite connotation of the word, relevant to debates in India, is that it is not just non-religious, but opposed to religion, what my friend, Avijit Pathak, who works at the Centre for the Study of Social Systems, JNU, would call 'hard' secularism.

Some go to the extent of alleging that there is a systematic secular agenda to modernity because the latter cannot prevail without a destruction of traditional, religious world views. Gandhi said as much in Hind Swaraj (1909) when he accused modern (Western) civilization of being ungodly.

The hard secularist sees religion as the hothead of superstition, intolerance, and oppression. Fundamentalism is not exclusive to religious, but also extends to secular fanatics who are totally and uncompromisingly critical of religion.

There is also a 'soft secularism'. Normally, a 'soft secularist' would not be necessarily anti-religious, but just non-religious. However, in India such soft secularism has gone even further, implying an equal respect for all religion or sarvadharma samabhava: in fact, an Indian secularist is a religious person who, in the best traditions of Hinduism, is tolerant to other religions. That is the sense in which people consider Gandhi to be a secularist.

(Source: The Pioneer, 3 March, 1996)