Photos of deities should be disallowed even in govt offices

Editorial in The Canara Times (Mangalore)

(23 September 2009)

Karnataka Chief Justice Dinakeran’s order banning photos of deities and performing of religious rituals in court premises, has come to light two months later. People who believe in secular ideologies would welcome this decision. In fact the government which should be secular and above religious affiliations and which should consider all citizens equal irrespective of their religious affiliations, should have issued such an order banning religious symbols or rituals in all government offices including courts and also public places and should have taken steps to ensure the rule was strictly adhered to. But ever since independence no government has taken any step in this direction. As per constitution India is a secular nation. This being the case, any symbol depicting the superiority of any religion or any ritual should have been naturally banned in government offices, courts, and educational institutions where people of all faiths converge and which runs with taxpayers’ money. This is the underlying need of the secular system which we have accepted and are practicing. We do not know to what extent Justice Dinakeran’s order has been implemented in courts. The Chief Justice should have brought government offices and schools and colleges too within the purview of this order. The public should send their views on this to Justice Dinakeran.
There is no hope that the present BJP government which came to power on the basis of religious sentiment would issue such a circular. In this backdrop, the Union Government should issue suitable instructions to all state governments and take steps to ensure that the rule was strictly adhered to within the next one month.
The governments which have used religions only for their vote bank politics, backtracking to adhere to secular ideologies is not in accordance to the needs to the time. The BJP government’s action of announcing hundreds of crores of grants for different mutts during the past one year period, is not just an act of drilling a hole into the state treasury, but also non-secular. It is nothing but gross misuse of valuable resources which otherwise ought to have been used for public welfare.
Even political leaders who come to power with the help of the votes of people belonging to all faiths, participating in religious functions is as good as tying the horse behind the cart. We cannot say that only BJP men are deeply religious. There are such people in all parties. Just try to recollect as to the number of homas and havanas in which the Cognress and JD(S) CMs and ministers have openly participated.
It is not suffice if the system is secular. We can say we are living in a secular system only when people who control the system (Including leaders and bureaucrats) are secular in the true sense.