thefisherofmen

Secular Sickular

Indians are now confused on the word Secular.

sec·u·lar
ˈsekyələr/
adjective: secular - denoting attitudes, activities, or other things that have no religious or spiritual basis.

The 42nd Amendment to the Indian Constitution changed the description of India from a "sovereign democratic republic" to a "sovereign, socialist secular democratic republic", and also changed the words "unity of the nation" to "unity and integrity of the nation".

Agreed that the 42 Amendment was brought into place by the Indian National Congress headed by Indira Gandhi during the Emergency and had attempted to reduce the power of the Supreme Court and High Courts to pronounce upon the constitutional validity of laws. It laid down the Fundamental Duties of Indian citizens to the nation.

But the "Secular" nature stated in the Amendment has nothing to do with the Emergency.

India is a national of varied beliefs, faiths & religions. there are people who believe in god or religion, there are people who don't believe in god or religion.

Therefore, The government of India as a whole nor the State governments can impose any law based on a particular faith or religion and has to be indifferent to religious notions of the public and treat everyone alike, irrespective of their beliefs/religions.

What is secularism -

It means that the law and religion are separate. And that the state doesn’t have a religion. While the latter is true in India, the former isn’t.

Indian state doesn’t have a state religion. India is not the ‘Hindu state of India’. It is the ‘Sovereign socialist, secular, democratic, Republic of India’. That is what the preamble states.

But are we truly Secular?
No. In matters of law in modern India, the applicable code of law is unequal, and India's personal laws - on matters such as marriage, divorce, inheritance, alimony - varies with an individual's religion. Muslim Indians have Sharia-based Muslim Personal Law, while Hindus, Christians, Sikhs Muslim Indians live under the common law. Only the implementation of the Uniform Civil Code will put everything at the same level.

Whether the government is run by a Hindu, or a Muslim, or a Christian or an atheist party, the government has to remain secular. there is no what, why, ifs, but about it. it has to remain secular.

Indian Political parties are purely opportunistic parties who view religion in terms of vote banks. They dilly-dally and change colours like a chameleon to play to the vote bank. These parties are not secular. They are Opportunistic.

Even if they say that they are secular, don't you ever believe that.

Followers of the current ruling party in India has a tendency to call any party or any organization or any person who criticises or goes against the notions of the Ruling Party as "Sickular"! 

It is their browbeating tactics. A kind of Bullying. In today's Social Media, it is a tool that has been effectively used. Nothing more, nothing less.

All Indians have their Freedom of Expression. But the point that the matter of their expressions should be the truth and not un-truth, or misinformation.

If my expressions are not acceptable to you, you should say that in a decent manner.

Animals have a tendency to turn violent when cornered. Humans are more cultured than that. So, instead of getting abusive and troll, try to discuss, debate the matters against which you take offense.

If you still persist, I would consider you same as a dog barking at a tree for no reason at all and send you dog biscuits.

Do you want to discuss, debate or do you want to eat my tasty dog biscuits?