Secular India - are we??

The recent SIT's report providing a clean chit to Mr Modi has not been well received. The 2002 Godhra riots where innocent lives were lost, has been a clear black mark in the political career of the highly eulogized image of the man who shaped Gujarat. I have admired and appreciated his efforts to make Gujarat as one of the most promising states in India.Was he unable to check the raging riots of 2002?????

The recent report has cleared him of conspiring or instigating the riots. But then an astute policy maker like Mr. Modi was haplessly incompetent in handling such a heated issue is an irony. The Godhra riots could have been curbed saving many lives, if not for his muteness...Holding the most important post; his inaction is as good as conspiring.

What could be the root cause of such an erratic insurgence that has surfaced very often?

The Hindu - Muslim strained relationships are dated back to the First war of Indian Independence (1857 Sepoy Mutiny), where divide and rule policy was instrumented by the Brits to rule us. Since then, the ruling class has exploited us. From then on, the damage has been irreparable. The final blow to the rift was the 1947 India - Pakistan partition, the largest human migration in world's history. The exploitation by our own politicians has been profound and I see BJP as no exception (and neither Congress...)

Godhra massacre is one such event. We have been plagued by numerous communal riots since our independence. It pains to see that this very issue hasn’t been addressed by our Government for the last 65 years. Hindu –Muslim rivalry isn’t the only form of communal aberrations, but it has remained the longest one and forms the crux of the other such communal tensions. Were there any real measures taken to abridge this gap after Gandhiji's martyrdom? As I see it, no sorts of elucidation have been promoted. This makes me to think if there really existed/exists a way to alleviate this bitterness? Well, if South Africa could reconcile from the dreadful apartheid, can we not? Mr. Mandela played a pivotal role and it was not an easy task. I really wish we had a leader who could have got into the root of this issue and pacified the prevailing communal hatred. I m sure it is a gargantuan task, but not an impossible one.

 On the contrary I find our Constitution further deepening this rift by the policy of reservation. Please don’t get me wrong here. I m not opposing the concept of reservation, the implementation of it is what I would like to question. Undue advantage and exploitation are being done by the political parties based on the caste reservations. They are being used as the cash bank by the parties to win elections or save their deposits. Further, granting reservations even for Post Graduate degree, promotions etc. are highly undesirable traits that add up to the existing woes. This also impedes the growth and development of the country. If India really intends to create a secular state, it has to abolish the reservations in an incremental fashion.

Only two members from a family of the castes/classes entitled for reservation must be eligible for the quota. If the allocation has been used up, no other member form the family is eligible for further reservations. The importance of the opportunity will only then be felt when it is made scare and people will understand its value. Indeed a quota scheme for the quota system (with a lot of tuning). In this set up, eventually the quota system will disappear(not in our times though).

I m sure this proposal would be vehemently opposed by the politicians and no politician would dare to take such a radical step (given that their vote banks would suffer horrendously). This would be a major step to bridge the widening gap between the estranged castes and would help in the creation of a truly secular state in the long run.