Karnataka Government‘s Unconstitutional Act

Karnataka government’s revenue department has issued a circular to nearly 34,000 temples of the state to conduct several rituals to bring rains in the state so that the farmers may be saved from the severe drought situation prevailing there.

It is not that these rituals would be performed free of cost. The state government has made elaborate arrangements to fund these ‘projects’ but according to political leaders of the state, it might come from other schemes. The government, it seems, is assured that once these rituals are performed, the Gods will be pleased and rains will pour in the state for the welfare of the people and cattle.

According to a story published in the Hindu, the government has sanctioned a maximum of Rs 5,000 for each temple and the amount costing the event would be around Rs 17 Crore.  The government obviously has too much faith in Hinduism and temples mentioned in the circular – a clear departure from what a secular state should look like.

This information is a serious violation of India’s Constitution which, as per article 51A asks the government to promote humanism and scientific temperament. The other noted violation is the secular preamble and related articles of our Constitution. If the government believes that God(s) would come to its rescue, then it must give support to all the religious institutions; mosques can make duas, cathedrals can perform prayers, and so on. This way the government wouldn’t be held accountable for blatantly violating the secular Constitution of the country and promoting the activities of a particular faith; of course maintaining the sanctity of our constitutional framework doesn’t look like the government’s business here.

Unfortunately, such incidents have not happened all of a sudden in Karnataka and other states, where the pro-Hindutva forces are in power. Those who see the RSS and the BJP as two different outfits make mistake in ignoring the nature of the political class of the Hindutva party, which gets its basics from the RSS-ideology and whenever they come to the power, their first agenda becomes to impose those communal and sectarian ideas on the people.

After Gujarat, Karnataka and Madhya Pradesh became the laboratory of Sangh Parivar. They do not seem to work for the people but use the issues which are sentimental and can potentially take people back to primitive age. These states have openheartedly given huge lands to big swamis, babas and other religious gurus, while no land is considered for redistribution to the poor.

Last year, during a historical celestial event, the Madhya Pradesh’s Minister for Science rebuked scientists for saying that eclipses do not cause any catastrophe and have no impact on human life. The Minister virtually chided Prof Yash Pal, one of the very few academics who have been very vocal in promoting science and scientific temperament in the country, saying that he was speaking against proven Indian values.

In Madhya Pradesh, the schools are forced to do Surya Namaskar; in both Karnataka and Madhya Pradesh, the schools have been asked to educate students about Gita, the holy text of the brahminical Hindus.  The Ministers for education in these states defended their actions, terming Gita as a secular book and as something good for everyone. And this has happened despite the understood fundamentals that education should be made secular, i.e., there must be religious bias in educational texts.

Minorities and all those who do not believe in these texts and faiths (for some it may be a serious breach of their faith to read such texts) face difficulty in going to government schools. It clearly means that it is a violation of the Constitution rights of people to get education, since schools and educational system happen to be hell-bent on promoting a particular religious brand and values.

Just a few days ago, we watched in horror, how a young girl was compelled to sit on fast in Aligarh to bring rain. Sooner, the girl became a Devi and thousands of women and men started sitting around her and supporting her cause to please Indra, the Hindu god of rain. It was a terrible site and rationalists condemned this incident, as the girl was suffering and did not even know what she was doing but those surrounding her were busy making her goddess; there could well be hidden agendas to make moolah. Finally, the district administration acted and the fasting of the girl was stopped. The Monsoon was already on its way to the north.

Karnataka government’s order to temples to perform certain rituals to bring rains to the state is a dark chapter in the history of India. It may look simple but it violates our Constitution and takes us back to those ages where we imposed the brahminical supremacy on the people of the state.

How can a state where we have the finest scientists and scientific institutions allow such things to happen? Why does Karnataka need Infosys, Wipro and other institutions which have made the state proud by their hard work and research, then? There is an Indian Institute of Science in Banglore, in addition to the National Center for Biological Sciences and Hindustan Aeronautics Limited; but all those names look futile when the government of the state focuses issues, which are nothing but utterly communal and clearly violate our constitutional ethos. That such an action is coming through a government order is more shameful.

For the individual cases of spreading superstition, we can ask the state to take action – as happened in the cases of Nirmal Baba, Pappu Baba and others – but what action should be taken against a state government which is wasting tax payers’ money on fictitious rituals meant to help the Brahmins of the state. It seems that the temples of Karnataka are not receiving many funds, like the one in Tirupati, and they desperately needed charity of Rs 5,000 each to keep the lord Indra happy.  If Karnataka government has no faith in the Met department, it must close it down and appoint a group of Brahmins to decide on the auspicious moments for everything.

We all know how former Prime Minister HD Deve Gowda took oath on an auspicious day when he became prime minister but those auspicious occasions did not stop the fall of Gowda and his family. Yeddyurappa had performed numerous yajnas but they couldn’t secure his seat.

The central government must act on such rhetoric of states. One thing is sure – there is an urgent need for central guidelines on the issue of promoting scientific temperament, humanism and human rights. Apart from that, states should also be sent specific guidelines on how secular values should be the integral part of our curriculum and anything which bars our children from creative thinking and modern outlook should be prohibited.

Verily, it is the duty of the state to promote ideas of democracy, human rights, scientific temperament  and humanism so that our children are prepared for the 21^st century and do not follow those primitive ideas that have stopped our march to modernity and brought disrepute to the country.