Every election precedes with hue and cry about some parties which are termed as communal. The media also fans the debate because it sensitises the whole atmosphere and gives them good TRP ratings. These are forgotten for the sake of convenience after the elections are over.
If communists are not communal, Muslim League is not communal, Parties based on cast like the BSP for a long long time, or parties headed by KSR Rao, Lalu, Paswan, Mulayam Singh etc who say that they are for the causes of minorities and their castes then how come BJP or Shiv Sena or MNS be termed as Communal ?? And by whom - The Congress and all these parties ?? Who gives them the right to sit on a judgement, particularly when their own hands are stained ??
Yes, if any of the acts on the part of any party disrupts the harmony of the society, spreads hatred or violence the state / central government, the police and judiciary should deal with the case with out prejudice and punish the perpetrators of such acts. The parties should not protect them and take concrete actions by weening out such elements from their cadre.
If any ideology is divisive then the election commission should seek advise from the supreme court and then term it as a communal party and should then ban it from having its operations in the country, forget fighting the elections. The ban should be actually slapped by the government , once such a ruling is given by the supreme court.
Till then no party should have a right to such mud slinging during or after the elections.
I fail to understand why this can not be done ?? May be there may be other alternatives too. But it is high time now to define who and what communal is ?? And yes let us stop these ugly debates on the electronic and print media.
In fact these have more polarizing and divisive effect on the masses, in my opinion.
It is time to say " Enough is Enough " .
2 comments:
I believe we do have these mechanisms in place. Organizations like RSS, Islamic Students League etc have been periodically banned by the supreme court.
The challenge now is, if the supreme court bans all parties that are communal, who will fight the elections? A radical ban will only exacerbate the divisiveness that these parties are trying to foster and could very well result in the disintegration of the country.
While far from ideal, it is preferable to have parties that are divisive but still operate within the framework of the indian constitution.
The solution would be as you say, to strengthen the arms of the executive wings of the government i.e police, judiciary, election comission etc to enforce the rules that are already in place.
But who will pass the laws that strengthens the police/election comissions hands? the politicians themselves?
Catch 22...
Once an outfit is banned it should not be allowed to function. How can there be a periodic ban, which gets lifted after change of guards at the center ??
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