One long-held shibboleth which\ndefined the bedrock foundation of our nation, \u2018Unity in Diversity\u2019 now needs\nurgent replacement with \u2018Unity in Adversity\u2019. Of late, many incidents were\ngiven communal colour including murder, rape and conflicts. These cases have\nlaid bare the quantum of bitterness and hatred running profusely among\ndifferent sects and sections of our society. For decades, the canker of\ncaste and religion has been eating away at the very secular fabric of our\nnation, posing a serious threat to the rational existence of democracy in our\ncountry. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Our nation\u2019s democracy grants us the\nprivilege to exercise fundamental rights which are quintessential to live a\nmeaningful and wholesome life, but by no means, does our democracy allow us to\ntear into the constitutional structure of our nation and take law into our own\nhands under the garb of caste and religion. Many a times, it has been seen that\nviolence gripping the Indian states is started by resorting to the provocative\ntools of caste and religion to serve own vested interests. The most unfortunate\npart of our democracy is that caste and religion are often misused by our own\nlegislators to stay in power. Our history is replete with instances where issue\nof development has been knocked down by caste-based election campaigns. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
In the run up to Karnataka Assembly\nelections, commotion was created on the foundations of caste and religion on\npurpose by all the political parties in the fray. The calculations began\nbefore the elections, a norm in our country, in a bid to identify the\ncontribution of SC\/STs, Muslims, Lingayats and Vokkaligas in the vote banks. It\nseems an illusion to contest election and win it solely on development\nagenda. It is conspicuous that our leaders leave no stone unturned in\nfanning communal flare but the common citizens need to stand up to blinkered\nmindsets and rather seek for unequivocal and extensive manifestoes from the\nparties charted out on development envisions. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Caste and religion based vote bank\npolitics has been one of the prime deterring reasons to the real growth of our\ncountry as it remains stuck with unwanted incidents and upheavals stirred\nespecially by astute political class of our country. Issue of development gets\nsidelined by touching the emotive issue of caste-based politics which helps\npolitical parties gain significant mileage over their rival parties with ease,\nputting the progress of the entire country at stake. Blaming solely people\nsitting at high echelons for jeopardizing the prosperity of our country will not\nhelp as we citizens ought to realise our responsibility to think beyond serving\nour limited interests and rather swap it for nation\u2019s holistic growth. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Unfortunately, reservation is\nanother moot issue which has also been played as ploy by our policy makers to\ncharm people into taking sides with them by demanding special status for\nspecial class, caste or religions. The nation cannot be expected to move\nforward if its people try to prove their identity as backward in a bid to sweep\nadditional socio-economic benefits. If one religion is given special advantage,\nthe remaining strata of the society understandably slip into annoying and\nagitating state. Taking into consideration the very colossal setup and complex\nmatrix of our country, catering to one particular community or caste is bound\nto generate acrimony among the rest in the backdrop of the fact that majority\ndoes not get easily ready to forsake their privilege for their peers. The\nfundamental cause is not the presence of different religions, but fanaticism\nattached to those religions and then, politics on those grounds surface boldly\nand bluntly. Several rows in our nation are owing to the religion and caste\nbiases like vociferously taking to streets and others pertaining to Hindus,\nSikhs, Muslims and Christians. If we consider India a united country, we should\nnot paint people\u2019s identity by the caste or religion they belong to or the\nlanguage they speak. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
In lieu of fixing those yawning gaps\nand differences, our legislators rather make use of such loophole as an\nadditional leverage to serving their own means. In this whole run of grabbing\nthe best, the importance to keep unity alive among different castes,\ncommunities and religions of our nation has been thrown to the wind. Would not\nit be more beneficial for the meaningful and holistic development of the\ncountry, if our politicians begin encouraging deserved more than reserved?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Achieving consensus among different\nsections of our society widely split into unwanted hierarchy becomes extremely\ndifficult, causing heavy loss to the nation\u2019s progression. Constitution is cut\nabove all religions; all the same, our legislators become constrained to pass\nlegislation in the purview that a law to be formulated may seem to benefit\nnation as a combined whole, but violating privilege given to the religious\nsects. Growing population has been a worrying concern yet one child policy is\nmiles away from execution in a nation which needs urgent curb on alarming\npopulation mark. Feeling for nationalistic allegiance apparently seems to be\nwilting away. This is the underlying reason for it. Not for a single instance\npeople from different castes and religions unanimously got up to a common\nsoapbox asking reservations for economically downtrodden section of our society\nnot taking into considerations the category those destitute people fall into.\nOur country needs to streamline its operations by purging the whole layer of\npolitics stained with different castes and religions. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Our democracy allows us to elect our\nown representatives, but at the same time expects us to choose them with\ndiscretion and an objective outlook. When our Constitution grants its citizen\nthe right to speech, it does not allow us to make trenchant and politically and\nmorally incorrect speeches. When it allows its citizens the freedom of\nexpression and action, the Constitution does not allow them to make a mockery\nof law and order and set fire to public and private property, indulge in the\nact of arson only to make their protest heard under the garb of religious or\ncaste security. Right to equality and religion does not allow the citizens to\nspread communal hatred only to lift one particular religion over others.\nNational and local politicians, leaders and scores of organisations\ndriven by caste and religious benefits work hand in hand to mar the democratic\nsetup, that keep stirring the caste cauldron to divide country into many minute\nsegments and strangle chances to let them glue together as a strong country. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
It\nis quite perturbing to know that in our nation, every now and\nthen, some religious faction gets up and takes to violent means including\ntorching buses, battering buildings and shutting schools and shops to create\nunjustified ruckus. Who\u2019s provoking the caste politics and who\u2019s playing into\nthe hands of radical elements? Answers are clear that it is primarily all\nthose political opportunists that make the cities burn through street wars only\nto earn extra mileage in the arena of politics. Instead of indulging in wrong\nacts of political mud-slinging, leaders would have justified their roles in a\nmore constructive manner, had they practised appealing to the public to\nmaintain peace, stand united and come up with effective measures to soothe down\nthe burning situations stoked by caste and religions. Violence on caste grounds\nis not new to our country, but it is something which we cannot allow to\nflourish especially making nation\u2019s growth and prosperity vulnerable to\nnegative waves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Caste, colour and religion have long\nplayed an instrumental role in the political arena of our country and other\ngovernment-run institutions such as police and the judicial system too have not\nbeen immune to it. Over the years, silver lining has been the rise in the\neconomic liberalisation in our nation backed by enlightened and empowered young\ncitizens; there has been a flux in caste-based politics with people turning\ndown parties hinging on false promises. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
On the ground of\nsecularism, India is potential enough to rise to new lofty heights and become\nthe supreme global power as it has highly untapped human resource under its\nbelt. As of now, what our nation needs the most is elusive unity which must be\nfree from the shackles of caste,
\nsects, colour and religion at composite levels. On the flip side, if we\nunmindfully continue trying to build up our nation\u2019s growth story on the ground\nof communalism, then, our country will remain not more than just a precarious\npile of cards no matter how high it is drawn. Anytime, it is likely to collapse\nto the ground even with a light waft of air. Hope, future heralds positive\noutcomes in Indian politics based on anything but caste and religion. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
One long-held shibboleth which defined the bedrock foundation of our nation, \u2018Unity in Diversity\u2019 now needs urgent replacement with \u2018Unity in Adversity\u2019. Of late, many incidents were given communal colour including murder, rape and conflicts. These cases have laid bare the quantum of bitterness and hatred running profusely among different sects and sections of our […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[3],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.competitionreview.in\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/429"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.competitionreview.in\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.competitionreview.in\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.competitionreview.in\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.competitionreview.in\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=429"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.competitionreview.in\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/429\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":430,"href":"https:\/\/www.competitionreview.in\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/429\/revisions\/430"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.competitionreview.in\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=429"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.competitionreview.in\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=429"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.competitionreview.in\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=429"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}