The Hindu : National : Banish religion from politics, minorities panel urged

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, May 11, 2005

National

National

Banish religion from politics, minorities panel urged

Staff Reporter

Need to accommodate people of divergent faiths

NEW DELHI: If the National Commission for Minorities banishes religion from politics, political parties will not be able to exploit religion to garner votes, journalist Kuldip Nayar said on Tuesday.

Addressing a seminar `Communal harmony through dialogue,' organised by the Commission here, Mr. Nayar said the need of the hour was to accommodate people of divergent faiths.

Recalling the communal riots during Partition, he said, " I saw the ugly side of the riots while crossing over from Sialkot (Pakistan) to India in 1947. Millions of people were killed. In the morning of my youth, I read Marxism that debunked religion. Later on I came into contact with Mahatma Gandhi during a prayer meeting at Birla House and what Gandhiji said was similar to what I had heard from my mother."

Sympathising with the minorities, Rajya Sabha member Karan Singh said: "I can understand the apprehension of the minority communities in our country as I am a religious minority in my Muslim majority State, but I pray at the dargah at Hazratbal and hold the Sikh shrine, Golden Temple, in as much reverence as the Raghunath temple at Jammu."

Dr. Singh expressed disappointment that while news of fundamentalism was splashed on television, news of harmony, love and compassion was not given prominence by the media.

Earlier, Commission Chairman S. Tarlochan Singh expressed the hope to facilitate a dialogue in which people with extremist ideologies would be given an opportunity to express their views.

Tarun Vijay, Editor of Panchajanaya, regretted that victims of the Godhra train carnage and the Gujarat riots were not allowed to express their views from the same platform. "I have been welcomed by my friends in Pakistan. However, in our country there is a secular fanaticism , which is no different than Talibanisation as you do not allow a person of different viewpoint to speak his mind."

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