The Indian dream is endangered

By Zafarul-Islam Khan Our long struggle and sacrifices for freedom which led to independence in 1947 and framing of a constitution three years later had dreams for the country. We wanted a society where interests of the poorest will be taken care of while framing and implementing policies. Where a level playing field will be afforded to all. Where there will be no hatred and discrimination.
Our Constitution guaranteed Right to equality in society and in front of law, right to freedom, right to personal safety, right to constitutional remedies, right to equal treatment by the State, right to believe or not to believe in any faith, right to marry whom one wants, right to live where one wants, right to personal safety, right to privacy, right to justice… Over the years we toiled making much progress to achieve our ideals. We built strong institutions, we put in place mechanisms of checks and balances. Mistakes like Emergency were committed but were soon corrected either by the rulers or by the people of India.
Our journey on the way of equality, democracy, socialism and secularism was interrupted when Hindutva made a big entry into politics in mid-1980s and adopted an old dispute over the Babri Masjid, finally leading to its demolition at the hands of bigoted mobs in December 1992.
The dream of a secular and socialist India was dented with the demolition of the old mosque. Indian polity has not been the same ever since. A political party riding the Hindutva wave started winning elections on the basis of hate and othering a part of the country’s population. This party ruled India during 1999-2004 but since it was saddled at the time by a large coalition of small political parties, it was not free to realise its Hindutva dreams but helped spread the fiction of Muslim terror in India. Its Home Minister, L K Advani, used to repeat  ad nauseum,  “Not every Muslim is a terrorist but every terrorist is a Muslim.”