English transcript of
Editorial in Karavali Ale, Kannada daily, Mangalore today
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Karnataka Chief Justice Dinakeran’s order banning display of photos of
deities and performing of religious rituals in court premises, has
come to light two months after it was issued. People who believe in
secular ideologies would welcome this decision. In fact, the government
which should be secular and above religious affiliations
and which should consider all citizens equal irrespective of their
religious affiliations, should have issued an order
banning religious symbols or rituals in all government offices
including courts and should have taken steps to ensure the rule was
strictly complied with. But ever since independence no government has
taken any step in this direction. As per Constitution, India is a
secular nation. This being the case, any symbol depicting the
superiority of any religion or any ritual should have been naturally
banned in government offices, courts and educational
institutions where people of all faiths converge and which runs with
taxpayers’ money. This is the underlying need of the secular system
which we have accepted and are practising. We do not know to what extent
Justice Dinakeran’s order has been implemented in courts. The Chief
Justice should have brought government offices and schools and colleges
too within the purview of this order. The public should send their views
on this to Justice Dinakeran.
There is no hope that the present BJP government which came to power on
the basis of majoritarian religious sentiment would issue such a
circular. Under the circumstances, the Union Government should issue
suitable instructions to all state governments and take steps to ensure
that the rule is strictly adhered to within the next one month.
The
governments which have used religions only for their vote bank politics,
backtracking to adhere to secular ideologies is not in accordance to the
needs to the time. The BJP government’s action of announcing hundreds of
crores of grants for different mutts during the past one year period,
is not just an act of drilling a hole into the state
treasury, but also it is non-secular. It is nothing but gross misuse of
valuable resources which otherwise ought to have been
used for public welfare.
Even political leaders who come to power with the help of
the votes of people belonging to all faiths, participating in religious
functions is as good as putting the horse behind the cart. We cannot
say that only BJP men are deeply religious. There are
such people in all parties. Just try to recollect as to the number of
homas and havanas in which the Congress and JD(S) CMs and ministers have
openly participated.
It
is not suffice if the system is secular. We can say we are living in a
secular system only when people who control the system (Including
leaders and bureaucrats) are secular in the true sense.