Rising tide of jingoism making minorities feel insecure: Journo

NT Correspondent

Bengaluru, Dec. 12 Former High Court Judge H.N. Nagamohan Das on Sunday, stated that the Indian constitution was drafted to bring power to the people.

While taking part in a conference ‘Democracy Under Siege - The Way Forward’, Das said the Constitution provided rights such as Right to Equality, Right against exploitation, Right to constitutional remedies, Right to religion, Freedom of speech and expression , Freedom to travel, Freedom to occupation and profession, Right to resident to each of its citizen.

“After India became independent in 1947, our founding fathers adopted the biggest written constitution in the world. We wanted feudalism to be abolished and insisted political power be transferred into the hands of the common public and that is how the seed of political democracy was sowed during the freedom struggle,” he said.

In his address, noted journalist Aakar Patel listed various failures of the Indian Government in saving democracy. He also dwelled upon the changes in the country after Narendra Modi came to power in 2014.

“The insecurities created in the name of nationalism by the BJP are a matter of concern. In 15 states of the country there are no Muslim ministers or leaders. Anti- Cow slaughter Bill was passed by the BJP government in 2020, which created chaos across the country and we are witnessing authoritarian forms of democracy which are united with the mass signal to CAA (Citizenship Amendment Act) and NRC (National Register of citizens). All these were made to target the minorities in the country,” Patel said.

The government must focus on the serious problems the country is facing for the past many years like social hatred, social segregation, unemployment, inflation, poverty, farmers suicides and religious polarisation, he added.

Jamaat-e-Islami Hind President Syed Sadatullah Husaini has called upon like-minded people to play a role in overcoming these problems and creating a better situation. Husaini said, “The growing weakness of democratic values and democratic institutions and the wrong policies of the ruling party have led the country to major social and economic crisis,” he said.

(Contributed by M.S. Kavyashri and Shreya B.R.)