(This article is not meant to hurt anyone's religious sentiments)
India is a diverse country with many religions and is a secular State. This means that all religions are treated equally. The basic structure of our nation's sovereign, ’The Constitution' includes its secular character which is non amendable. Under the 42nd Amendment Act of the Constitution of India enacted in 1976,the word 'secular' was added to the Preamble.
The government of India plays an extremely important role in upholding the secular nature of our nation. Our present Prime Minister, Narendra Modi said that, ”Secularism runs in our veins." but is this 'secularism' even real?
The reality is far from the utopia we imagine when secularism comes in our mind. In India, under the name of secularism personal laws are granted to all religions. The Hindus have their own personal law while the Muslims, Parsis and Christians have theirs. There is no uniform civil code which should exist because we are secular. The children in our country are sent to religious institutions like Madrasas in Muslims and Christian Missionaries where they are mainly preached about their religions. In future these children face problems in interacting with people from other religions. I believe that they should be sent to schools which support diversity and have a secular character. The basic rights of women are allowed to be crushed under the name of religion which should not be happening in a progressive nation like ours.
As I said earlier, the government plays an extremely important role in upholding the secular nature of our country. Is our present government actually promoting secularism or are they supporting one religion to buy votes? The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is promoting Hindutva because 79.8% of Indians are Hindus. They know that religion is a sensitive issue in our nation. It's a fact that for most Indians their religion comes before their nationality. I will give you an example. Today in a progressive nation like ours, a cow is a priority over human beings. Recently, a cow had died in the city of Bulandshahr in Uttar Pradesh. Inspector Subodh Kumar , a brave police officer was murdered mercilessly during the riots that had fumed across the city due to the cow’s death. When the Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh was reported about this incident, he simply told his men to find the cow's murderer first and then the inspector's! I respect the fact cows are sacred and that they are worshiped but isn't our nation secular and isn’t right to religion our fundmental right? Why is beef even banned? People who want to eat beef should be allowed to eat beef. It should be a personal choice. The views of the cow vigilantes can't be imposed on minorities and even beef eating Hindus.
I believe that India is far from the concept of secularism where all religions are meant to be equal. Our nation is pseudo-secular or fake secular where policies are framed to appease the minorities for votes. In India people who claim to be secular are misunderstood as anti-Hindu or pro-minority. The word 'secularism' is only a euphemism of vote bank politics as said by the BJP leader LK Advani. Here secularism is only used by politicians to buy votes when the politicians don't even care about the welfare of the minorities. I clearly believe that India nowhere close to secularism and in the end ,I would just like to ask you one question, "Is India A Secular State?"
