Kr Swarn Kishore Singh
While I was trying to evaluate the level of reasoning of our people on the issues related to politics and religion, Mark Twain reached to my rescue who has very appropriately said that “I am quite sure now that often, very often, in matters concerning religion and politics a man’s reasoning powers are not above the monkey’s” (sic). Almost a month prior to the recent judgment of Hon’ble Supreme Court of India regarding prohibition of usage of religion, caste or creed card for elections, Supreme Court of United States of America had decided a case of gerrymandering on racial basis in the states of North Carolina & Virginia. And in that case, it was very profoundly reported that even after hearing the counsel for more than allotted time and that too without interruptions, Justice Samuel Alito had said, “This is all, very very complicated” (sic). And yes, indeed these issues are!
For that matter, let me cite a very popular example; last year while Donald Trump was running for president of United States of America, he was countered with the allegations of racial abuse and misogyny. Almost all the leading news channels, newspapers & magazines such as CNN, New York Times, Washington Post, Huffington Post etc. were running an aggressive campaign against Donald Trump, accusing him of racial & ethnic stereotyping and objectification of women too. CNN had witch-hunted Trump so much and after the exposing of email scandal of Hillary Clinton; netizens had started de-abbreviating CNN as Clinton News Network rather than Cable News Network. They portrayed Donald Trump to be liked by only rich whites of United States. But the contrary was proved when arithmetical analysis of the election results gave us a trivia that Obama had got the votes of 93% blacks while as Trump got votes of only 58% whites, fair enough. But even after all this Obama was a liberal and Trump, a racist. However the biased media was shown the way by the people of United States when Trump’s Republican party won the senate, the house & maximum number of governors. The question which still remains unanswered is; how to decide that someone is racist and rest aren’t because Obama did not specifically ask for votes of blacks but he received 93% of them, but Trump implicitly showed his tilt towards whites but got votes of only 58% whites.
Now coming back to India; where we have political parties like All India Majlis-e-Itihadul-Muslimeen, Akali Dal, Indian Union Muslim League etc, how can we expect religious appeal to skip the electioneering process? Then comes NC, PDP, Shiv Sena, AIADMK & DMK, which are parties known for crying for votes on the basis of region, while as there is Raj Thackeray’s MNS which divides people on the basis of language.
The recent judgment of Hon’ble Supreme Court in case Abhiram Singh Vs. C.D. Commachen & Ors. & Narayan Singh Vs. Sunderlal Patwa & Ors. prohibiting seeking of votes on the basis of religion, race, community, caste and language during elections, is just like a fresh breathe in this era of foul and divisive politics but the real question is how much of this judgment is going to be really implemented in-toto. Its first litmus test will be in Uttar Pradesh, where it is a well-settled rule that there is a feud of Bahujan Samaj party over the Dalit voters, Samajwadi party over OBC voters with Muslims shifting their stance as per the whip and whim of few mullas & molvis, Congress over some Brahmins & BJP over the left over so-called upper caste. In today’s times where the major agenda should be development of infrastructure and improving of human development index, when the agenda should be to find new ways of progressing in the field of science and technology, we still vote on the basis of caste, creed, language and religion.
The most amusing aspect of this revolutionary judgment is that it has received the sharpest criticism from the quarter which claims to be the secular-liberal of the country. And this criticism is understandable too, because if this judgment is implemented strictly, some of the parties will never sit in power again. For example if Mayawati’s BSP will be barred from invoking Dalit pride in the process of electioneering, then there are very bleak chances of her party to ever win the elections. As a matter of fact, since the days of Babu Jagjiwan Ram, Dalits have been very loyal to their leaders but even today after almost 70 years of independence; Dalits still pine for social justice and yearn for economic mobility. If parties like Shiv Sena, Akali Dal, NC, PDP, MNS etc. will not dilute their religious and regional sentiment, then they hardly deserve to be in power and this judgment is poison to their politics. Similarly if AIMIM is barred from seeking votes by invoking Islam and Quran, can they spread across India at such a formidable pace? A close look at the choice of contested seats of AIMIM across India in last 3 years shows that AIMIM is considering its feud on Muslim voters across India, thereby targeting only Muslim majority constituency be it Maharashtra, Bihar or Uttar Pradesh. There were a lot of constituencies where the Muslim voters used to decide the elections, but now they will be turned redundant, because they are going to vote for AIMIM, hence the worth of Muslim votes is decimated and so is their democratic power. And then one of the many grounds they take is that if Muslims and Dalits will not vote on the basis of their religion then they will not find people from their community in the league of the decision makers and hence they will be neglected. The fact is that the remedy which minorities are taking for treatment is even worse than the problem itself. The dilution of these illegitimate appeals has reached such a level that a vote appeal for development is reduced to parergon with religious & caste appeals as principal job. And the reason why some parties are flabbergasted with this judgment is that now they won’t be able to go ahead with their appeasement politics and thereby the permutations to reach the throne aren’t in their favour.
This judgment is the first but a significant step in the political history of our country and a precedent for other countries; as the political parties globally have made it a habit and an unwritten rule to divide the people on the basis of some very petty grounds. This is something which should be brought to halt. But we as a nation cannot rest over the glory of this judgment alone; now we, the people alongwith the election commission have a bigger role and need to be even more vigilant. And infact Hon’ble Supreme Court has given the responsibility to election commission alongwith powers to clip the wings of the people who bring contempt to the orders of the Apex court to the extent of even disqualification of the election of any such offender.
But within few hours of delivery of the judgment by the Supreme Court, Mayawati had come up with a statement that” Muslims should not waste their votes on Samajwadi Party & subsequently she found a simpatico in Sakshi Maharaj, a BJP MP who cried the propensity of Muslim women’s for giving births to multiple child, thereby demeaning a particular community and hence polarising the election environment. As far as BJP is considered their official ideology is HINDUTVA & Integral humanism, but during the proceedings of the above mentioned case, ,the Apex court had very specifically observed that the bench was not going to tamper with the definition of Hindutva laid down by three judge bench of the Supreme Court in case Dr. Yeshwant Prabhoo Vs. Prabhakar Kashinath Kunte & Ors. In this case the Hon’ble Supreme Court has clearly observed that; “Hindutva is not a religion, but a way of life and a state of mind”. Therefore as far as legal angles are considered BJP is on the safer side but when they are gradually shifting their stance from rath yatra days to vikas yatra era; it does not seem to go back to those times again. Infact now most of the polarising of votes for BJP is done with the grace of other parties, which are believed to be anti-Hindu and as a repercussion to that sentiment Hindus by default vote for BJP.
Another argument which comes forward is with regard to the enforceability of this judgment, which is a real concern. For that matter the Apex court has granted election commission enough of ammunition and hope and the commission uses it too. Although the implementation of this judgment isn’t easy, even then this is no excuse for not welcoming this new trend. And by the way the Apex court gives judgments for sake of public good and not because of its easy enforceability.
Nonetheless, this judgment is a reform in itself; but that doesn’t stop the politicians from coming up with a solution and that too amicable one. And a solution to this judgment for them can be what we call dog-whistle politics. May be the candidates will resort to this type of campaign which may not be directly violating the judgment but implicitly it may, therefore only when the implicit conversation between the leader and his target voters would be completely and strictly monitored by the election commission; the ends of this step of the Apex Court will be satisfied. Even proxy campaigns need to be subject to strict scrutiny of the election commission.
Lastly, I won’t put the onus only on the political parties; somewhere down the line, we, the people of India should now bluntly refuse to follow this age old trend of voting on basis of religion, caste or any other petty ground. Sometimes it is because of our voting trends, political parties are forced to resort to such unfair and unhealthy practices. For example Mulayam Singh had entered into politics as a socialist and as a follower of the biggest socialists ever born in India i.e. Ram Manohar Lohia and Jayprakash Narayan, but slowly he had to adapt his political ideology as per the demographics and voting trends of his state. Arvind Kejriwal’s Aam Admi Party is a party which finds its origin in the anti-corruption crusade and now it has reached to such a level that it supports Laloo’s RJD and Mamta Banerjee’s TMC and had allied with Congress just to make it to the power corridors. We Indians need to learn vey swiftly that we all are humans and development and prosperity is our new religion. Although this isn’t that easy but for peace & prosperity, this is the only option. Appropriately a renowned poet Mirza Ghalib had come up with couplet about 150 years ago which says;
Bas ki dushwar hai har kaam ka aasaan hona,
Aadmi ko bhi mayassar nahin insaan hona.
(The author is an advocate practising in Supreme Court & a political and legal analyst)
feedbackexcelsior@gmail.com
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