Secularism for India does not mean being non-religious
but an equal respect to all faiths, but the “appeasement” government policies
of the past made the biggest religion of the country feel like it had to be
self-deprecatory in the name of equality, said External Affairs Minister S
Jaishankar.
During an interaction entitled ‘How a Billion People
See the World’ at the Royal Over-Seas League in London, Jaishankar was asked if
India had changed since the Nehruvian era to become less liberal and more “Hindu
majoritarian” under the BJP-led Government.
While asserting that India had certainly changed, Jaishankar
was categorical that the change did not mean India being less liberal but
rather “more authentic” about expressing its beliefs.
“Has India changed from the Nehruvian era? Absolutely,
because one of the assumptions of that era which very much guided the thinking
of the polity and its projection abroad was the way we define secularism in
India,” said Jaishankar, in response to a question by journalist-author Lionel
Barber.
“For us, secularism doesn’t mean being non-religious;
for us secularism means equal respect to all faiths. Now, what happened in
reality in politics was beginning with equal respect for all faiths, we
actually got into a sort of politics of minoritarian pandering. That, over a period
of time, I think, created a backlash,” he said.
Jaishankar referenced “appeasement” as a very powerful
word in the Indian political debate, which guided the direction in which
politics went.
“More and more people started feeling that in a way,
in the name of equality of all religions, in fact, the biggest religion had to
be self-deprecatory and play itself down. A big part of that community felt it
was not being fair,” he noted.
The senior BJP leader said the political and social
changes seen in India in the last few years have partly been a reaction “at an
intellectual and political level” to this sense of unfairness.
Specifically asked if tolerance had gone down in India
as a result, he responded, “I don’t think so; I think on the contrary. I think
people today are less hypocritical about their beliefs, about their traditions
and their culture.
“We are more Indian, more authentic. We are not today,
either currying favour before a global audience or really trying to live up to
some kind of left-wing liberal construct which a lot of Indians felt was not
us.”
The question-and-answer session, organised by foreign
policy agency Wilton Park in partnership with the High Commission of India in
London, marked the minister’s final engagement in London as he concluded his
five-day UK visit.
The discussion covered a wide range of topics,
including India-China relations, the ongoing diplomatic row with Canada, and
the socio-political scenario in the country.
PTI
