Who will draw Lakshman Rekha for Parivar?

The nation is yet again confronted with an avoidable controversy, thanks to the way Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government goes about trying to change the social, educational and cultural mores governing our society. What is being celebrated across the world as Christmas, birthday of Jesus Christ, is sought to be changed to celebrations for former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee and Pandit Madan Mohan Malaviya, one of our leading freedom fighters, who happened to be born on December 25.

The idea of honouring national heroes is laudable. But a question that the government must answer is: would Vajpayee have approved of this? A liberal, he had carried a score of different parties along in his government and was a liberal even in his dealings with those in the opposition. Modi and his ministers ought to take a leaf from Vajpayee’s book. But they have sought to use every other occasion, be it Jawaharlal Nehru’s birth anniversary or Indira Gandhi’s death anniversary – for divisive politics.

Running down one set of leaders to acclaim another – Sardar Patel, Vajpayee or Malaviya – is not the way to honour them. Dragging them into unseemly debates is actually doing them disservice. The government on Monday called a media report on instructions issued to Kendriya Vidyalayas and Navodaya Vidyalayas “deliberately misleading.” And then it whittled down its diktats to these schools. They are being asked to observe “good governance day.”

Give us “good governance” any day, Mr Modi. That is a promise on which the people elected you and your party to power. But please ponder: Is it the task for school children, or for your government and for the so-called educated who abound in our legislatures pushing their divisive agendas and holding the House to ransom? There, indeed, is need to educate our political class about our diverse polity that can run only by accommodating each other’s views. If that is not changed, what message is being sent to the school students?

One cannot but take note of the fact that on backfoot for the second time in two weeks, Modi has been forced to warn his lawmakers (erring junior ministers included) “not to cross the Lakshman Rekha.” His warning is welcome. But will it be heeded, when the bigger ‘Hinduva’ forces are issuing their own diktats that are responsible for a minister using abusive remarks against religious minorities and a lawmaker seeking to glorify Mahatma Gandhi’s assassin, amidst what seem attempts at forced conversion. Who will draw a “Lakshman Rekha” for these forces?

Modi told his colleagues “to adhere to the party line and follow the government's ideology.” He would need to clarify what those two are to avoid further controversies that, besides vitiating social harmony, also vitiate the climate for investment that his government is so assiduously seeking. The investor, he is well aware, seeks calm, not conflict.

By: Mahendra Ved