I hear it a lot these days. Congress is a “secular” party, India is a secular nation. BJP is a non-secular/communal party, they instigate hate. Modi, Varun Gandhi, Advani are all hate mongers. Lalu, Mulayam, the left parties often claim they want to bring a “secular” government to the center. They all are seculars, BJP and the like are not! What the fuck is secularism? Are we, the citizens of India even secular?

Balls! A big fucking no! We Indians are not secular. Neither by heart, nor by actions!

In fact as long as you prescribe to one of the religious schools of thought, YOU are not secular.

Dictionary meaning of secularism (From dictionary.com) -

secular spirit or tendency, esp. a system of political or social philosophy that rejects all forms of religious faith and worship.

and

the view that public education and other matters of civil policy should be conducted without the introduction of a religious element.

Do we really follow any of these in our political and educational systems? NO!

pure secularism is in practice nowhere in the world! In the US, the president takes his oath on the Bible. In India, we have the court where the witnesses take the oath of their respective holy book. We have schools which are run by affiliated with various religious bodies which promote their own religions. We have morning prayers in schools, our curriculum is full of godly fiction! We have different set of rules governing people from different religions in the forms of various personal laws. We teach our kids that our god is the only god and all others are false. Then how can we be seculars?

Politicians try to make us believe that secularism means following your own religion and respecting others. No that’s not true secularism. If you follow an ideology, you are in a camp and those that don’t follow are always in the other camp! Camps will always have rivalries. It’s human nature. We want everyone to subscribe to the same views as us. We all always try to “convert” people around us to believe what we believe. And we humans are always in conflict with other humans who have a different view. Heck don’t we support our own IPL team and make fun of others who are supporting other team when they lose? Isn’t that a rivalry amongst the supports of various football/baseball/basketball teams? The intensity of the rivalry can vary but it will always be there. If you are not with us, you are against us!

Nobody is secular! Varun Gandhi can make a speech and he gets thousands of followers and he suddenly achieves national fame! Why does this happen? He leads because they are people who support his idea. They are not seculars. Is Congress being secular? No! When the PM of a nation says Muslims have the first right on a nation’s resources he is not being secular. Why do riots take place? Because people are not secular! Our leaders come from within us. They are the reflection of our values.

My point is no one in this country is secular. Everyone is trying to ally with some group. Some ally with minorities, some with the majority. But ironically those who ally with minorities somehow feel they are secular and those allying with the majority are not!

If you are preferring one group over the other, then you are taking sides. Secualrism means not taking sides and remaining neutral. If you take sides you are not being neutral, you are not being secular. Period.