Ragini Shankar Sinha JUSTICE SHOWCASED
Kudos to Justice Liberhan for his perfect timing. Remember 17 years and Rs 8 crore is the price of the blunder that we call Indian democracy. Had there been no demolition of a place of worship, there would have been no Liberhan Commission and no squandering of our precious national resources. Competitive madness compels our political parties to acts of vandalism, like burning of trains, demonizing and attacking our own people, and desecrating sacred places. In sheer short-sightedness, everyone blamed Justice Liberhan, and no one blamed the perpetrators of communal politics.
Just imagine, Justice Liberhan submitting the report in six months after the demolition. Then in a mood of defiance, there would have been half-a-dozen more demolitions. Had Liberhan submitted the report while the NDA was in power, are you knave enough to believe that Prime Minister Vajpayee would have put L K Advani and Uma Bharati behind the bars? The rickety Manmohan Singh government in its first avatar would have collapsed had the justice been indiscreet. Instead, he showed maturity in presenting the report when the political climate is ripe and the issue almost forgotten so that the nation can have an impassioned debate. This truly is the gift of Liberhan.
Secularism got a bad name and was projected as a western concept. Secularism is a home-grown concept like yoga, which the west adopted. Back in the pages of history, we meet a marauder from Tajikistan, who along with his gang came to plunder India but stayed on to become the emperor and patriarch of a dynasty. His name was Babur, and he was surprised to see empires collapsing before his tribal gang and hence stayed on to rule the land. Babur was no ambassador of Islam and his deeds (excesses) should not be taken as the benchmark of good governance, especially because he lived in medieval times.
The interesting lesson to learn from the mogul times is what emperor Akbar himself learnt. Akbar began his rule not as an enlightened ruler which he later became but somewhat like Aurangzeb. But not long afterwards, the emperor realized that to rule the country, you have to first rule the hearts of the people – which is the secret of secularism. Nevertheless, implemented by people who do not understand the spirit of it, secularism becomes a demon.
And it is time to leave behind the ghost of Babur and enter the 21st century. We can do so only if we dump the anachronistic politicians into the dustbin of history.
Just imagine, Justice Liberhan submitting the report in six months after the demolition. Then in a mood of defiance, there would have been half-a-dozen more demolitions. Had Liberhan submitted the report while the NDA was in power, are you knave enough to believe that Prime Minister Vajpayee would have put L K Advani and Uma Bharati behind the bars? The rickety Manmohan Singh government in its first avatar would have collapsed had the justice been indiscreet. Instead, he showed maturity in presenting the report when the political climate is ripe and the issue almost forgotten so that the nation can have an impassioned debate. This truly is the gift of Liberhan.
Secularism got a bad name and was projected as a western concept. Secularism is a home-grown concept like yoga, which the west adopted. Back in the pages of history, we meet a marauder from Tajikistan, who along with his gang came to plunder India but stayed on to become the emperor and patriarch of a dynasty. His name was Babur, and he was surprised to see empires collapsing before his tribal gang and hence stayed on to rule the land. Babur was no ambassador of Islam and his deeds (excesses) should not be taken as the benchmark of good governance, especially because he lived in medieval times.
The interesting lesson to learn from the mogul times is what emperor Akbar himself learnt. Akbar began his rule not as an enlightened ruler which he later became but somewhat like Aurangzeb. But not long afterwards, the emperor realized that to rule the country, you have to first rule the hearts of the people – which is the secret of secularism. Nevertheless, implemented by people who do not understand the spirit of it, secularism becomes a demon.
And it is time to leave behind the ghost of Babur and enter the 21st century. We can do so only if we dump the anachronistic politicians into the dustbin of history.
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