Abrogation of Article 30 of the Constitution is a vital move in the State’s war against the fundamentalists used as a cat’s paw by Pakistan and the other external enemies to destroy our nation.

There is no other country in the world like India, where millions of people practising different religions live in near-perfect communal harmony. No doubt, there have been occasional ripples in the still waters of communal amity. There is, however, peace and quiet by and large. How has this been feasible? This is primarily because the Constitution guarantees one and all the fundamental right of freedom to worship and practise a religion of one’s choice.

Tolerant Hindu Community
More importantly, the majority Hindu community has, to its credit, been ever so tolerant, in keeping with its ethos of Sarva Dharma Sama Bhava or equality of the end goal of all the religions. At the time of the country’s partition, the majority community was at the receiving end of fire and brimstone from the hardcore elements of the Islamic community who demanded a separate homeland for Muslims. Unfortunately, even after migrating to the newly-founded Pakistan, the hawks did not relent and pursued their anti-Hindu agenda. They consolidated their hatred for India and went about systematically targeting the minority communities of Indian origin in their own country.

Having succeeded in nearly decimating the target groups, they shifted focus to fomenting trouble in India. How they planted, bred and nurtured hatred for Hindus in the mind of the gullible sections of the Indian Muslims that resulted in the ethnic cleansing and exodus of Hindus from Kashmir is history. There have been flashpoints of communal strife in parts of the nation during the rule of Congress and their allies. Furthermore, infiltrating Jihadi elements and agents of the Islamic State, who were on the Ghazwa-e-Hind mission, resorted to brainwashing and converting frustrated Indian youth to the Break-India cause.

Hindu Community Let Down
Hinduism was maligned by pseudo-seculars, and there was even a baseless theory of Saffron Terror floated by the then Home Minister of the erstwhile UPA government. Tukde Tukde gangs started appearing and spouting venom against the Indian nation and its sacred signs and symbols like the national flag, national anthem, etc. These ragtag anti-national groups have been working overtime to make misguided students turn hostile to the very concept of patriotism. They received support in no small measure from partisan and communal elements among the intelligentsia, failed artists, pseudo-secular and liberal political elements as well as sold-out sections of the mainstream media (MSM). Pakistan was slowly and steadily making headway in its nefarious design of destroying communal harmony in India.

Trouble Ahoy!
An instance of the academia turning to stoke communal fires was recently witnessed when troublemakers used the sanctum of a seat of higher learning – the Jamia Milia University in Delhi – to attack police personnel and unwary bystanders and destroy public and private property during the anti-CAA protests by Muslim women and children with a sprinkling of non-Muslim supporters at Shaheen Bagh. From the pro-Pakistan slogans raised, it was evident that the protestors had the blessings and active support of Pakistan.

Trouble spread to North East Delhi where communal elements tried to bring the life of the local residents to a standstill. When pro-CAA residents tried to resist the trouble makers, the latter resorted to pre-planned violent attacks. There were random killings, brutal murders, arson and wanton destruction of property. All this was done on the pretext of the Muslim community feeling insecure and being targeted by the majority community over the new citizenship law. Inflammatory speeches were made by communal leaders about an alleged conspiracy by the BJP to victimise the minorities through legislative measures and turn the nation into a Hindu Rashtra. Evidently, there were Pakistani footprints all over.

Majority Response
The peace-loving majority across India are in no mood to allow communal passions to spread. They don’t want an imbalance in the majority-minority equation or demography. Nor do they want a free rein by blood-thirsty separatist mobs on the lines of partition. The sane elements in the minority community have been trying hard to prevail over the zealots with little or no avail. So, now it is for the government to act. Our nation has been a mute witness to instances of rabid Muslim clerics and advocates of extremist political ideology spouting poison through speeches exhorting their herd to rebel, revolt and fight for another Pakistan. Unruly behaviour and violent activities have become the norm on Fridays after mass prayers.

Places of worship are being turned into training grounds of a militant mindset in the name of service to their own religion to be rewarded with lucrative enticements in paradise. The immature and the gullible who are soft in the head fall prey to these manoeuvres. The places of mass congregation of the minorities and their religious schools also serve as meeting points and hiding places of militants and terrorists who are on the run. Although intelligence outfits and security agencies get credible tip-offs of anti-national activities, a police raid of these places becomes well-nigh impossible in the absence of ironclad proof or evidence because of the sensitive nature of the issue.

Constitutional Guarantee Misused
Article 30 of the Indian Constitution upholds the right of the minority religious groups to establish and organise educational institutions. Religious education is imparted in these institutions, which are funded by dubious sources. There are reports of brainwashing of youngsters who are taught in the name of religion to hate and convert Hindus through whichever means possible. Young women become easy prey of the foot soldiers of love jihad and are trafficked to war-torn areas in the Middle East to be pushed into sex slavery. Young men are radicalised and talked into joining and serving IS either within the country or at the theatres of war like Syria, Iraq or Afghanistan.

Abrogation Necessary
Hence, there is a strong case for the abrogation of Article 30, which is being misused by the minority communities to poison young minds in the educational institutions run by them. An aggressive militant agenda is pursued in these institutions to push the cause of Abrahamic faiths, promote proselytisation and love jihad and other anti-Hindu activities. Hindu children studying in these institutions are effectively turned against their own religion. Peace-loving people all over the country are becoming more and more restive over the separatist agenda of the fundamentalist elements in the name of religion.

So, it is high time that the Central government formulated a muscular policy to deal with the issue of communalism and its inevitable fallout. It makes no sense to allow the minority communities to promote anti-Hindu religious propaganda in the educational institutions run by them when children of the majority Hindu community are denied basic religious education in the absence of their own community school or elsewhere in the name of Secularism. This causes a reprehensible imbalance of equation between the communities. Abrogation of Article 30 of the Constitution is a vital move in the State’s war against the fundamentalists used as a cat’s paw by Pakistan and the other external enemies to destroy our nation.

(The article “Time To Review Or Abrogate Article 30 Of Indian Constitution” published in “Business World”)