When Swami Vivekananda talks of the Vedantic Mind in an Islamic body, that is the future of India. Swami Vivekananda was not somebody who did not see what the future of our country was. It is only the syncretic evolution of the India we know today, that is our strength. If you try to impose a uniformity – whether it is religious uniformity or it is linguistic uniformity or it is cultural uniformity – on our diversity, then, this country can never remain together, it will only implode. Our country can strengthen only when we strengthen the bonds of commonality that run through our diversity. Those bonds of commonality which run through our diversity must be the focus.
From my own experience of the last 12 years, I can say that it is not that we only reflect the concerns of the people outside, but we also give an agenda to the people outside, that how the country should be and that is the input the Parliament or the House must give to the movements that will be taking place outside. I am already there, but I will devote all the time and attention to that. When we say, “सारे जहां से अच्छा, िहन्दोस्तां हमारा। हम बुलबुलें हैं इसकी, ये गुलसितां हमारा।।”, we are talking of a garden where there will be various flowers, there will be various birds, there will be various scents and there will be bees that would be interconnecting between these flowers. So, that Gulsitan is our country. Let us not target any one specific group or anything else for our narrow, petty immediate prospects. That, in the long run, will only undermine all of us together.
So, my only appeal, Sir, is that in today’s situation, we are, I think, living in a period of what is normally called as the post-truth. Sir, the word ‘post-truth’ has been defined by the Oxford dictionary as the most influential word of 2016, that is, last year. How does it define, Sir? It is called the word of the year 2016. It says and I quote: “relating to or denoting circumstances in which objective facts are less influential in shaping public opinion than appeals to emotion and personal belief”.
This post-truth is not Indian reality, Sir. We have to get back to that Indian reality. I have had a very fond association with the Leader of the House since the last 45 years. He is not wrong when he says that we have grown up together. But it is also not wrong when I say that always through these 45 years, we are on either side of the fence. You are there and I am here in terms of our ideological position. But, yes, here, we will debate. We will debate with all sides. But, then, the point is that it is this country, this Constitution that has to be strengthened and carried forward.
Yes, the Leader of the House very jocularly said that since Sitaram has never been in the Government and he makes all these atrocious demands and things that are not practical, I am sure that is a value that they also share, sometimes, or many a times. But, Sir, one thing you must grant me and my party. Though I don’t believe in intellectual property rights, if there is any intellectual property right that we must be given without any hesitation is the concept of outside support. Outside support is the intellectual property right of the CPI(M). That is something you will have to give, Sir.
A member: Don’t repeat that mistake.
Sitaram Yechury: Of course, my friend, Shri Jairam Ramesh, said we go back to many years, but he didn’t complete the whole story. He didn’t complete the whole story. He said, “Sitaram Yechury, I call you Sitaram Obituary”, to which I always used to reply to him saying, “This is Jairam mortuary!” If his policies are followed, then, you will be in the mortuary. Sir, in a lighter vein, I would only say this.
Arun Jaitley: Mr Jairam also has not changed. He continues to write obituaries.
Sitaram Yechury: Since we are speaking in a wonderful bonhomie and atmosphere, the battle against post-truth is something that really concerns me. It concerns us. We have spoken so often here. Please come back to the realities of what we ask. Please understand the reality. Your farmers are committing suicides, which are growing. Your youth that is going around the country is feeling a sense of insecurity. We are the youngest country in the world. If we can give our youth education, health and jobs, nobody can stop India from being the leader of knowledge society in the world. We have that potential.
Please address those issues and let us not get diverted on to other unnecessary issues of rupture rather than unifying in order to build a better India so that we can create a better society in the future. Yes, that is a political approach. We have to take a political decision on how to do it. If there are those who believe in post-truth and rupturing the unity of this country, that needs to be fought. On that, there can be no compromise, and I shall never negotiate. That is not a negotiable issue — the unity of my country, the harmony of my society.
And, that is why, Sir, I want to just finally tell you, please understand. You talk of the syncretic culture. In this august House, I have not said this earlier, but I think I should say this. You tell me. There are millions of people like me in this country. I am born in the Madras General Hospital, now called Chennai, the General Hospital in Madras, to a Telugu-speaking Brahmin family. My grandfather being a Judge, after the States Reorganization, the Andhra Bench of the High Court of Madras goes to Guntur and so we shift there in 1954. I am born in 1952, shift to Hyderabad in 1956. My school education is in an Islamic culture that was prevalent in Hyderabad under the Nizam Rule in the early days of the Independence, of 1956. मेरी तालीम वहीं हुई है। उसी तालीम के साथ मैं यहां आया हूं।
Then I come to Delhi, study here. I am married to a person whose father is a Sufi of the Islamic order whose surname is Chishti, the Chishti-Sufis, and whose mother is a Rajput but a Mysorean Rajput, who migrated there in the Eighth Century AD. We are now in the 21st Century. She is the daughter of these two, father and mother. A South Indian Brahmin-born family boy married to this lady! What will my son be known as? What is he? Is he a Brahmin? Is he a Muslim? Is he a Hindu? What is he? There is nothing that can describe my son rather than being an Indian. That is our country. That is my example. I am giving you my example. Just look how many such people are there. It is that India, Sir, that you are the custodian. We have all been the custodian. We are all the custodian of that India that we have to preserve.
This is part of ThePrint’s Great Speeches series. It features speeches and debates that shaped modern India.
Ananya is 50% Maharashtrian, 25% Gujarati, 25% Punjabi. Hard to split her nationality between India and Singapore.