Breathing religion while hanging secular mask is the order of every political body in India.

Our country is groups of societies with different faiths and religions and people of this vast country is closely knitted and connected with the beliefs and sentiments associated with them.

Secularism in India means equal treatment of all religions by the state. The 42nd Amendment of the Constitution of India enacted in 1976, the Preamble to theConstitution asserted that India is a secular nation Interestingly,. India'sconstitution or its laws no where defined the relationship between religion and state.

This means state can associate with religion and also at the same time disassociate with it. There is a thin line how , where and when the state can interfere with religion matters of any faith.

But recently many pseuedo secularists started a new version of politics which have no connection with religion. Many regional parties today are being backed up by a religion and those parties stand behind protecting those religions by their acts and actions. Minority appeasement is one among them which led to vote bank politics.

If you see the recent political trends congress government in Karnataka sent a resolution to centre asking religious status to Lingayats. This resolution has undoubtedly has the blessings of their high command.The demand for recognition of Lingayats a sect of Hinduism made a serious division in hindu votes.

This demand may also gives rise to many other demands in Hindu as well as other religions. How can congress party who boasts that they are secular and a party claims itself as party of connecting people of the nation can do this and still claim as secular?

Similarly in West Bengal Mamatha benerjee government adopts a soft attitude on Bangladeshi muslims who are illegally infiltrated across border. They are even given voter id cards and Adhar cards for the sake of building her vote bank in West Bengal.

We can also see the actions of this party which bans hindu schools or schools which has Hindu ideaology while encouraging mothersas and church led instiutions. How can Trinamul congress claim itself as a secular party showing different treatments to various religions.

In the state of Telangana even KCR is adopting a soft stance towards muslim community and even passes a resolution to give muslims reservation in the assembly.

In Uttar Pradesh the government is being allegedly supporting the hindu casue and committed openly for building Ram Mandir in ‘Ayodhya. Its Chief Minister is openly declaring himself as an advocate for hindu cause.

Time has come to start a debate whether we should keep the word secular in the constitution or not? When every political party has a religious idealogy and needs support of specific religion, its just an eye wash to call ourselves as a secular.

Hope our political parties decide whether to shun the religious color completely to become secular or remove the word ‘secular’ from constitution’s preamble before people hate them for their acts of appeasement and vote bank religious politics.

By Raghu bhushan Eranki