Politicisation for polarisation

With Lok Sabha election just round the corner, politicians in India are back at their favourite pastime – calling each other names and adding to the melodrama, trip over each other to prove their religiousness. Politicians also love to quote the Lakshman Rekha at separate moments with dramatically different perceptions just to suit what is convenient at a given point of time. ‘Lakshman- Rekha’ (LR) is an imaginary dividing line of what is permitted to be done and what is not permitted to be done. It refers to an imaginary line drawn by Lakshmana around the dwelling he shared with his brother Rama and Rama’s wife Sita at Panchavati. It’s a no-holds barred in India where religion is no longer a ‘must-to-avoid’ but a must-to-have. The narrative from being secular or even pseudo-secular to outright communal or national has come about after the landslide win of 282 seats by the BJP in 2014 with 31% of the votes. That victory was interpreted as a mandate to change India. Thus begun, the worst transgression of crossing the boundary as politicians began using religion to spread division and exploit it for electoral gains. Politics and religion make a deadly concoction and a poison to the spirit of federal pluralism and secularism. These two words today have become ugly words. Politicians in India are among the most religious lot in the world. Much of the speeches made by politicians largely include something to do with religion especially of the majoritarian kind. It is a sad demise of secular credentials and fundamental values. From Gujarat to Delhi, and from Karnataka to Assam, communalism is rife. The right way is extreme right where the modus operandi is to systematically target minority groups where religion is evidently to polarise India and this is quite unfortunate in a nation of billion-plus people. If the Congress and so-called secular political parties damn the BJP and RSS as being anti-constitutional and pro-communal; the grand old party which claims to be ‘secular’ is an unabashed practitioner of vote bank politics to add to polarisation of the nation. As Congress continues with its tirade in attacking Modi and his party of using Hindu religion to win votes from the majority community, the party’s heir apparent and perpetual prime-minister-in-waiting Rahul Gandhi himself spares no effort to be seen visiting mandirs, offering prayers and proudly(naively)proclaiming to the world that he is a Shiv Bakht or follower of Lord Shiva. This shows a disturbing trend in India where politicians are deliberately focusing on their religious identity. On the other hand, religious leaders are coming out with their political choices to further their mutual interests. In this course, the dividing line between religion and politics has become very blurred and more flammable. The narrative has led to a situation where religion embraces political discourse instead of spiritual essence. Politics has come to contain religious rhetoric instead of debate on problems of people. The radicalism in the name of faith and the sense of otherness will keep on digging deep, and explode in a catastrophe. If this continues, India is only sliding towards being nation where religion will determine how laws are made. In this, it will also mean India could follow the course taken by its neighbour.