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Gujarat
high court's secular credentials questioned in PIL
A Gujarat
High Court bench headed by Chief Justice S.J. Mukhopadhaya Tuesday
refused to hear a public interest suit questioning the court's
secular credentials.
The bench of Chief Justice Mukhopadhaya and Justice K.M. Thaker
said: "Let the matter
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It is a common sight to see the
statues, photos and symbols of Hindu Gods and Goddesses in different
Government owned public places like police station and other
buildings. Similarly state run buses also have the photos of Hindu
Gods and Godesses. We have stopped thinking whether it is right. It
is a common observation that most of the time Hindu rituals are
performed while the construction of state projects, buildings etc
are undertaken. The practice has become a sort of routine to which
not many people give a thought. We remember that after independence
serious scholars criticized the government for not being secular
enough. Around that time when Pundit Nehru was the Prime Minister,
the Central Cabinet not only turned down the proposal of building
Somanth temple with state money but Dr. Rajendra Prasad, the then
President was also advised not to inaugurate the temple in his
capacity as the President of India. The visits of public
functionaries to the holy places were a strictly private matter,
away form the glare of media.
Times seem to have been changing. The politicians are competing with
each other to seek the divine blessing through different well
advertised visits, the inaugural ceremonies of state sponsored
buildings have the Brahmin priest supervising laying of the
foundation stone and undertaking a bhoomi puja (Worship of Earth)
and doing his best to get the approval of the supernatural powers
though the chanting of Mantras. In this scenario, the move by Rajesh
Solanki, a dalit activist from Gujarat to file a Public Interest
Litigation against the bhoomi pujan and chanting of mantras
performed at the time of foundation stone laying ceremony for the
new building for the High court, came as a move to set the things on
secular grounds. The function was performed in the presence of the
Governor of the State of Gujarat and the Chief Justice of the State
amongst others. Solanki’s plea was that a secular state should not
perform the religious rituals. Such an act of worship violates the
basic principles of the Indian Constitution, which is secular and
lays the boundaries between the state and the religion. Solanki
argued that the puja and chanting of mantras by Brahmin priests
would make the judiciary loose its secular credentials.
Rather than upholding his rational and secular plea, the court went
on to dismiss the petition and also fined the petitioner Rs 20000,
doubting his bona fides. The judges went onto say that the Bhoomi
puja is meant to seek the pardon of the Earth to graciously bear the
burden of the damage to make the construction, to make the
construction successful. And since this is for the welfare of all it
fits into the Hindu values of Vasudhaiva Kutumbkam (All beings on
the planet are one family) and Sarvajan Sukhino Bhavantu (For the
good of all).
There is a lot of mix up in different arguments being put forward.
To begin with to regard that for making a construction the Earth has
to be worshipped is a purely Hindu concept. The people from other
religions will do different things to start their construction work,
like sprinkling Holy water by Christian priest for example. The
atheists will be more concerned about the preservation of ecological
balance and to see that the geological and architectural aspects
have been fully taken care of. The legal defense of the practices of
one religion for state function is nothing short of violating the
basic principles of Indian Constitution, which ensures that state
keep its distance from all religions and then treats them all on the
equal ground, reaffirmed in S. R. Bommai case. Secularism, as
understood in S.R. Bommai is that (1) the state has no religion (2)
the state stands aloof from religion and (3) the state does not
promote or identify with any religion.
It is true that moral values of many religions can be accepted by
the society at large, like Vasudhaiva Kutumbkam (Hinduism), or ‘all
men are brother’ (Islam) or ‘Love thy neighbor’ (Christianity) but
as far as rituals are concerned it is a different cup of tea. The
core of religions is not rituals but moral values. In popular
perception and practices it is the rituals which are identified with
the religion. This is a matter of social understudying and different
streams will go by different opinion on this. The core point is that
the saints of the genre of Kabir, Nizamuddin Auliya, and Gandhi
harped on the moral aspects of the religions. As far as practice of
religion is concerned people have no restriction in following their
social and personal practices, which are so diverse between
different religions and even within the same religion as different
sects follow different religious practices.
Such a judgment goes totally against the Article 51 (A) of the
Constitution also, which directs us to promote the rational thought
in the society. The promotion of rituals of one particular faith by
the State is against the spirit of our Constitution. Again in many
instances there is just a thin borderline between faith and blind
faith. Blind faith will push the society in the retrograde
direction. Today we know that unless the location for a construction
is selected properly, geological and construction aspects are taken
care of scientifically, accidents do happen. That’s why state has
developed many a norms of construction which are necessary to be
cleared and we have witnessed that violation of such norms have led
to accidents. Our courts have to promote these aspects of
Constitution rather than to prove in a convoluted way that practices
of one religion should be accepted as the state practices. Father of
the Nation Mahatma Gandhi had gone on to state that “In India, for
whose fashioning I have worked all my life, every man enjoys
equality of status, whatever his religion is. The state is bound to
be wholly Secular" (Harijan August 31, 1947) and, "religion is not
the test of nationality but is a personal matter between man and
God, (ibid pg 90), and," religion is a personal affair of each
Individual, it must not be mixed up with politics or national
Affairs"(ibid pg 90).
Last few decades identification of Hindu religious practices has
been accepted as the state norms and this needs to be given a
rethinking.
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