New Delhi: The root of the “so-called” opposition unity lies in Hindu opposition, which according to them is secularism, said the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh’s (RSS) Hindi mouthpiece Panchjanya in an editorial this week.
It was referring to the meeting of 17 opposition parties held last month to discuss a possible alliance against the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.
The editorial cited the example of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) demanding consensus from all parties on the Delhi ordinance and said, “The AAP put a condition of consent of all the parties against the ordinance brought for Delhi. Immediately, Omar Abdullah asked that when it was a matter of removing Article 370, then these parties were calm. Asaduddin Owaisi added that the parties which remained silent on the removal of Article 370, how can they be secular?”
“It means that being in favour of Article 370 is the test of being secular,” Panchjanya claimed.
“This concept of expansionism of Islam in India confirms the same definition of secularism, which was once given by Arun Shourie — that being secular in India means that if Muslims stick to their religion 200 per cent, then they are secular, and if Hindus reject their religion 100 per cent, then they are secular,” the editorial added.
The article alleged that the “so-called opposition unity may be for immediate (and in fact criminal) purposes, such as maintaining the stature and importance of their respective local and isolated leaders, protecting the politico-economic interests of their families, and protecting them from action against corruption.”
But it stressed that the root of this opposition unity lies in the same Hindu opposition, which they label as secularism.
“As soon as the Congress comes to the government in Karnataka, it talks about abolishing the anti-conversion Act and approving cow slaughter. This increases the stature of Congress on the criteria of secularism. Obviously, in such a situation, other parties will have to do something to draw a big line, and then the competition of being anti-Hindu will start,” Panchjanya wrote.
Meanwhile, some of the other topics covered by Hindu Right authors and columnists included the poll violence in West Bengal, the impact the Uniform Civil Code (UCC) could have on the country and the contentious sedition law.
Also Read: ‘Personal laws of a community seriously violate women’s rights’ — Hindu Right press on need for UCC
West Bengal poll violence
The Organiser, the RSS’s English mouthpiece, focused on the violence in West Bengal ahead of the panchayat polls scheduled on 8 July and criticised Rahul Gandhi for having “no courage” to talk against the real “nafrat ka bazar” (carnival of hate) established under the Mamata Banerjee regime in the state.
The Organiser editorial focused on the upcoming panchayat elections and the violence that started soon after the notification of polls, which has reportedly claimed at least 15 lives.
“Violence and elections have been a given equation in West Bengal, and talking about it hurts the ‘Bengali pride’ of Trinamool Congress (TMC). The 2018 panchayat polls also witnessed large-scale violence killing 20 people, and the ruling party (TMC) had bagged around 90 per cent of seats, of which 34 per cent were uncontested,” the editorial said.
“And Mamata Banerjee still has the guts to talk about democracy and elections (being in danger) if the BJP returns to power in 2024,” the editorial added.
Tracing the history of political violence in West Bengal, from Muslim League to Marxists, the editorial said, “The Great Calcutta Killings of 1946 forced staunch nationalists like Syama Prasad Mookerjee and Sarat Chandra Sen to accept the Partition on religious lines. In the 1970s, communists reintroduced the violence and politicisation of police machinery as effective instruments of governance, as they did everywhere else.”
“Bengal voted for Mamata Banerjee to get rid of violent politics. Instead, her TMC bettered the art of state-sponsored corruption and violence,” the editorial alleged.
Debate around UCC
Ashwani Mahajan, the co-convener of Swadeshi Jagaran Manch, in his blog post titled UCC: New India needs new beginnings praised the common set of laws as “a big leap forward as it will bring about social change, gender equality and secularism in the country”.
He said that different personal laws for different religions create disparity and injustice in society, especially for women and children.
“For a long time, it is being felt that there is a lack of uniformity in society due to different personal laws governing people of different religious faiths. At the same time, due to some historical and conservative influence, the personal laws of some religious groups are not in the best interest of various sections of their community, such as women and children,” Mahajan said.
This, he said, hinders the optimisation of the welfare of the whole society. “For example, for the past several centuries, Muslim society has had a very unequal and exploitative divorce system,” Mahajan claimed.
He also advocated for the UCC by connecting it with equality being one of the Sustainable Development Goals of the United Nations.
“Where according to the personal law of the Hindu society, there has been complete gender equality, but it was not so in the Muslim society. According to Hindu personal law, women have equal rights in inheritance, but this is not the case for Muslim women. Similarly, there are neither any equal rights between Muslim women and men in divorce or marriage,” he said.
According to Mahajan, with the implementation of the UCC, the rights and status of women will improve significantly.
He said that political parties will try to create a hindrance, but the society will have to “show firmness”.
“Various political parties will also work to foster their agenda, under the policy of appeasement of minorities (Muslims) they can try their best to create obstacles in the way of implementation of the UCC, without any logic,” he wrote.
“Although Prime Minister Modi is lobbying strongly in favour of the UCC, in the coming days, when Parliament will sit to pass the UCC Act in the country, not only the government, but the whole society will have to show firmness in this regard,” Mahajan added.
Meanwhile, Hari Shankar Vyas, another right-leaning senior journalist and author, in his weekly columns in online magazine Naya India questioned why the Modi government did not implement the UCC in the past nine years.
“There is no such hindrance, no ifs and buts from the side of Narendra Modi and Amit Shah, the BJP, Sangh, Constitution and Supreme Court. Home Minister Amit Shah removed Article 370 from Jammu and Kashmir in the resolution of One Country, One Legislation. Then why in vain are Narendra Modi and Amit Shah invoking the Opposition parties and Muslims for removing various inequalities in law? Why not directly propose the new law in the Parliament without making a hue and cry and get it passed?” he asked.
Vyas also alleged that the BJP wants to get Hindu votes by politicising the issue. “Because by generating talks, by creating an attack against Muslims, they have to cook their vote bank politics among Hindus,” he added.
“There is a hue and cry in the whole country that Muslims are giving birth to more children. It is necessary to stop their population. It means that the Uniform Civil Code is the Brahmastra to stop the population of Muslims. If it is so then why has the Modi government kept the baton of this law hanging in the air for nine years?” he asked.
Tracing the descendants
Vishva Hindu Parishad’s Hindu Vishwa magazine editorial focused on the “real descendants of Indians”. The issue has been at the centre of debate in Maharashtra over the past month. Some minors were even reportedly booked for posting pictures of Aurangzeb, a Mughal ruler, in June.
The editorial claimed that even if some Muslims consider themselves to be Aurangzeb and Tipu Sultan descendants, they cannot erase their Hindu roots and they will find out that they are related to Hindu ancestors.
“The Taliban broke the statues of Buddha in Bamiyan, but today when their economic condition has deteriorated, they are remembering the same Buddha as their saviour. The Muslims of Indonesia changed their religion centuries ago, but did not leave their ancestor Ram”, the editorial said.
Many tribes of Northeast India have adopted Christianity, but have not abandoned their traditional dress, weapons, food, deities, festivals, language and, therefore, have followed the tradition of their forefathers, the editorial highlighted.
“It is a matter of great surprise that those who have not come from Saudi Arabia and changed their religion later on, are seen shouting slogans in favour of Tipu and Aurangzeb to poison the country to irritate Hindus. It is insulting to call others your father by giving up the self-respect of your forefathers,” the editorial claimed.
The editorial added that Hindus “do not object to the beliefs of different sects”, but they object to “your mistake of considering Islamic fundamentalists as your forefathers under the influence of jihadis”.
Sedition law
As the SC is examining the laws under section 124 A of the Indian Penal Code (sedition), the BJP leader and former Uttar Pradesh assembly speaker, Hriday Narayan Dixit, supported the sedition law in a Dainik Jagran article and said “many laws can be abused, but it does not mean the laws should be scrapped.”
“The law has its utility. It is a tool to deal with anti-national, separatist and terrorist elements,” he added.
“At present, several state governments are battling Maoist insurgency. At some places, the rebels do not even accept the existence of the government. The Northeast is troubled. PFI (Popular Front of India) is active. Such forces keep trying to undermine the governments established by law through violence and illegal means. Anti-national forces attack the lawfully elected polity,” he said.
Highlighting the significance of criticism in a democracy, Dixit said “criticism of government policies strengthens the polity.”
However, he cautioned that, ”There should be restraint in speech in allegations and counter-accusations. The abolition of sedition law can affect national security, unity and integrity. Separatist forces can take advantage of this situation.”
“The word sedition has been a source of suspicion for all the courts of the world. Its definition is very simple. This definition was given in 1868. According to this, treason includes all such behaviour, in verbal, action or written form, the purpose of which is to disturb the peace of the state or to induce people to do so. There was widespread criticism of Section 124A of the Penal Code then. That’s why this word was removed from the draft constitution,” he said.
There has been a debate again on treason, this should also be welcomed, he said, adding that, “Just as every human has the right to self-defence, the nation-state also has the right to the same.”
(Edited by Richa Mishra)
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