By DR.YOGESH SHARMAUpdated: MARCH 25, 2018 16:43
It is a highly welcome step to get rid of the government subsidy for Haj pilgrims. The Constitution declares that India is a secular nation, and forbids discrimination on the basis of religion. So, the state should not support any religious groups, and not finance or subsidise any.The Haj subsidy was always an infringement of this principle of secularism Even in 2012 the Supreme Court also declared it unconstitutional. The BJP has been clearly calling the subsidy a case of “appeasement politics”. Ultimately the Modi government has shown the guts and courage to abolish it outright and strengthen the true spirit of constitution and secularism.However, a secular state that bans Haj subsidies must ban all types of communal funding. Such a non-discriminatory ban would stand for secular non-appeasement. Instead, the Modi government itself has been financing the lakhs of minority educational institutions, madrasas, churches, Mazars, etc. Even still transport and accommodation for pilgrims to Ajmer Sharif are financed by the government. Modi government has abolished only one subsidy but still, hundreds of such appeasement or communal funding are still going on. Financing multiple religious groups and schemes are as wrong as subsidising one. Supporting some institutions over others is also discriminatory.The Modi government is actually very slow in the abolishing the religious subsidies and financing. Many state governments have been giving such subsidies and finances for years. Such communal schemes were marketed by intellectuals and media as secular because it included non-Hindu institutions. Why should the state be picking and selecting among religions or pilgrimage centres? This is not the work of a state.Such selectivity automatically shows bigotry in favour of some and against others. The sad fact is that still minority institutions and bodies are financed by the several governments not out of secular fervour but to cement the minority vote banks. Do minority institutions are more deserving than the majority and secular institutions? Not in any way.And yet the very politicians that denounce the Haj subsidy as “minority appeasement” are silent on these fundings. The finances provided by other states are too numerous to be listed fully. News reports say UP finances no less than twenty thousand madrasas. All the state governments have minority commissions fully financed by the governments.Both Congress and BJP governments have been financing hundreds of schemes related to minority employment etc. Almost all the states have government financed Haj Houses, Waqf boards, graveyards etc. Most the states ruled by either Congress or BJP has subsidies for Hindus or Hindu institutions.In sum, all political parties, Congress and non-Congress, are waist-deep in subsidies and funds for minority religions. The subsidies are not by speciality of religion-based parties but by all. Even then they call themselves proudly as secular, and even by parties (like CPM, DMK and AIADMK) claiming to be the rationalist. This is cynical vote-bank politics, precisely what the Haj funding was for the Congress. All such subsidies would be declared unconstitutional in the secular countries like the US or France. The judiciaries in those nations take care to disconnect the state from religious activity, although all the western nations have a strong Christian lobby.
In India, there is no ethical obedience to disjointing of the state and religion. Even those politicians declaring themselves secular fundamentalists have been averse to denounce the Haj and other communal subsidies, or state institution fundings. Indian secularism is almost fake and Indian secularists are naked communalist.A subsidy for some religions amount to discrimination against other religions and infringes Constitutional pledge of equality of faiths.All religions have large, formal institutions with fat funds. Some Indian churches, mosques, Mazars and wakf boards are extremely rich. In India, wakf boards are the number one owners of lands in the country. Same is the position of churches.Why should these religious bodies are not being held accountable to subsidise and finance their own community and institutions? They already get colossal tax subsidies. Let these be forced to support them. Without the Common Civil Code, such provisions cannot be made. So for true secularism and equality, the Common Civil Code is the top most necessity.