Is saffronisation legal or illegal?
Techno-Gandhian Centre
Is saffronisation legal or illegal?
Written by Dr. Balamurali Balaji
Can this right-wing government go too far and run a far-right government imposing bills and practices that challenge the preamble of the Constitution of India?
The previous two-terms of the BJP led government and just re-elected third term cannot be seen as a clean-chit for outright saffronisation or demoralization of the nation’s ‘secular’ nature. From the oath-taking ceremony to the recently, abruptly concluded session of the parliament, utterances of ‘Jai Sanvidhaan’ and the political parties and leaders showing more affinity towards referencing the Constitution of India, has become a matter of interest.
Some of the states like Karnataka have witnessed anti-conversion, anti-cow-slaughter laws during the BJP rule which went for strong criticism by the opposition Congress. Prominent Muslim organizations have denounced any attempt by the government to saffronize the education system. These remarks came over the idea of forcing customs of one religion on students from other religions in schools such as the practice of "Surya namaskar" and the Islamic organization maintained that it was against the Constitution.
Muslims in India have a prominent say in the country on various political, social, economic platforms. They constitute 14.2% of the country’s population. Lok Sabha 2024 has 24 Muslim MPs while 27 MPs were selected for Lok Sabha 2019.
Ramshankar Katheria, the deputy minister in HRD ministry, has said saffronisation of education as well as India will take place if it is good for the country. A couple of months ago, the Vice Chancellor of Delhi University asserted that if saffronisation means serving the country, DU is ready for it. Tamilnadu also saw an implication of the continued efforts of saffronisation by this government, when the logo of public broadcaster Doordarshan (Tamil) changed its colour from red to orange. Out in public, there were many incidents, like painting the statues of great leaders in saffron colour, that stand as a testimony for this government’s alleged conspiracy of saffronising.
Leaving aside the question of what good India will see out of saffronisation or what kind of conspiracy is behind it, it is important for every citizen of India to understand the meaning and purpose of saffronisation.
The right-wing Hindu nationalist’s approach of implementing the hegemony of Hindus and the Hindu way of life, and adding saffron, the color that is considered as sacred to the linguistic, semiotic actions of every institution. The Hindu Nationalist Party BJP that has been leading the government for over ten years is keen on doing the saffronisation, illegally! The Constitution of India does not permit them legally as the preamble defines India as “SOVEREIGN SOCIALIST SECULAR DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC”.
Even while saffronisation is in the full swing on a range of issues from changing the content in school text books to enacting laws in a hope of hauling the majority Hindus to the core Hindu stream, issues such as Islamophobia, mob lynching, Muslim reservation, targeting of madrasas, Citizen Amendment Act (CAA), uniform civil code (UCC), anti-cow-slaughtering and Love-Jihad etc., are increasingly evolving as a new line of threat and tension in the sensitive states of the country. In this context, a sensitive state is a state that has more of Muslim population than any other state.
So, the Hindu Nationalist agenda spreading across those states faces the opposition from secular parties and the legal battle in the removal of the word ‘SECULAR’ once suggested in the parliament itself. It also requires them to change the name of the country as ‘BHARAT’ which directly or indirectly means ‘HINDUSTAN’. The weight on these two words ‘SECULAR’ and ‘BHARAT’ will have their agenda fulfilled and it would legalize the actions of the would-be ‘far-right’ government.
The RSS and the full majority BJP government until June 2024 was hopefully dreaming of such a transformation from right-wing to far-right agenda in their third term. To their dismay, the General Elections just concluded has put a coalition BJP in power, which might dilute the Hindu national agenda and shift the focus towards stability and retention of vote bank.
Whatever
acts or policies hurting the minorities would thus be alleged as ‘illegal’,
‘atrocity’ or ‘dictatorship at the risk’ of losing power at the centre.