IN a meeting organised by the Tamil Nadu platform for people's unity at Chennai Raja Annamalai Mandram on July 23, leaders of secular parties called for unity among all the secular forces and parties to defeat fascist forces in the country and to save democracy. Speaking on the occasion, senior Congress leader and the former union minister, P Chidambaram said that not only in India but also in all other countries religion is traversing a dangerous political path.

MIXING RELIGION WITH POLITICS DANGEROUS

He said: “We should see the atmosphere prevailing now. People have religious faith. It grows gradually and becomes religious chauvinism.   People give space for BJP to grow.  If the soil is not good, the tree will not grow.  we should think that the religious faith grows and becomes religious brutality.   Religion is crossing its limits. Its entry into politics is causing immense damage to society.  When Nupur Sharma spoke ill of Prophet Mohammad, people from various walks of life in India condemned this speech. But, the BJP did not bother.  Then, Qatar became the first country to condemn her speech. This was followed by 15 more Muslim countries, who raised their voice against her speech. While the BJP was silent till then, despite critical voices from many organisations in India, acted only when the Muslim countries protested and suspended  Nupur Sharma and removed Jindal Naveen. They also said that the country is in no way connected to this kind of speech by some fringe elements in the party.  If the protest of the people of India, the institutions, and intellectuals writers raise their voice against such disrespect to some religious leaders go in vain and only the voice of foreign countries have some merit in India,  then it will be dangerous to the nation.   In  France, there is no space for religion in politics. The government will not allow religion to enter into politics. But the government will not interfere in the religious faith of individuals. In our country, the government is trying to involve religion in politics. The people must think deeply about the dangers and consequences of religion in politics and prevent such politics in India.”         

HINDUTVA IS HINDU RASHTRA FORMATION                        

N Ram, director of The Hindu Publishing Group, in his presidential address asked the people to first fully   understand what Hindutva is. He said: “ If we do not understand this,  we cannot fight against the authoritarian Hindutva regime. Hindutva is just not politics.  They have hidden agenda to implement in India.  They want to establish Hindu Rashtra in the country. Whether it is practicable or not is another matter. But the RSS and BJP are doing everything to achieve this goal.  Though an adivasi woman becomes President of India,  they will not stop attacking the adivasis elsewhere in the country.     Our constitution has given freedom of speech,  the practice of any religion and all other freedoms. But in the BJP regime, everything is trampled.   When people boldly oppose the views of the government they are attacked.  Even the journalists could not escape from this attack.  Mohammad Zubair's arrest is an example of this.  He continuously exposed the corruption and lies of the government.  Hence he was arrested. He has crores of followings throughout the world. The supreme court gave bail in one case. But he was arrested in another case.

Article 32 of the constitution provides us to seek remedy in court. What should we do if it is violated by the government?  Dr Ambedkar also cautioned about this and said it was the soul of the constitution. But it is violated now.                    

MANU DHARMA AND NOT CONSTITUTION IS THEIR HOLY BOOK

G Ramakrishnan, Polit Bureau Member, CPI(M), in his address said that the Modi government is implementing what is written by Golvarakar. He observed: “Freedom of India,  is in danger now. All sections of the people fought for this freedom struggle. But now they want to convert India into Hindu Rashtra.   It is written in their ideological paper -Organiser. They want to create India's institutions on the basis of Manu Dharma.  Hindu religion and Hindutva are different. Hindutva's aim is to create a nation based on Hindu religion, the constitution based on Manu Dharma, want to make  Sanskrit the official language of the country and install Sanatana Dharma.  BJP wants to swallow the true values of the Indian constitution and make it hollow. When Ambedkar created this constitution he said that the implementation of a good constitution depends upon those who rule the country.  If bad people rule the constitution will be ruined. In order to protect the constitution, we have to fight against the communal BJP.  The constitution, parliament, court etc., may exist. But the values of secularism,  democracy, federalism and sovereignty will not be there. Whenever the BJP comes to power,  it is altering the basic tenets of the constitution with all nuances of the law to implement its hidden agenda.   The secular forces should join together to fight against the fascist tendency of the BJP government and establish a truly secular state.”              

Thirumavalavan, president of Viduthalai Chiruththaigal Katchi spoke that the BJP is not only against Congress but also against the whole of India.  The programme of the BJP government is the programme of the RSS.    It is throbbing to change India's name Hindu Rashtra, he said. “The Indian constitution is an obstacle to this step.   The inner content and true values are destroyed keeping the above Indian constitution. CAA and abrogation of Kashmiri special acts are the tips of the iceberg.  RSS is a  brahmin’sassociation.  In order to hide this fact, they call themselves Hindus gathering people even from dalits and adivasis communities.  If we oppose Hindutva they brand us as if we are opposing the Hindu religion. They bring in schedule caste and backward class people to camouflage as if they are Hindus.  The weakening of Congress will endanger the security of our nation.  In the present situation, the left parties are joining with Congress to save our nation. Congress is still alive, because of dalits and tribal people etc., in the party. The BJP openly declares that it is in no need of minority votes.  BJP organise dalits and adivasis in their fold.  The Congress must realise this and rally all the democratic forces in the country,” said Thirumavalavan.  Inigo Irudayaraj, leader of the Christian Goodwill movement said that there is a real danger to our constitution. He said: “The parliamentary democracy is threatened. There  is no debate in the parliament.  They have prepared a list of words which we cannot speak in the parliament.  The communal BJP should be thrown out of the government by consolidating all secular forces and secular parties in the country. In order to save our democracy and the true values of our constitution, the unity of the secular parties is essential. We,  as,  Indians should unitedly fight these fascist forces and throw them out of this country.”  

S Kumar welcomed the gathering. Jennifer Wilson gave the vote of thanks. The meeting was moderated  by G  Udayakumar, Vanniarasu, Nrithya and Pudhu Madam Haleem.