Narendra Modi inaugurates new Parliament on ruins of a secular one

The inauguration of the new Parliament building by PM Modi in a Hindu religious ceremony marked the symbolic death of the Nehruvian vision of a secular India

May 27 marked 59 years since the death of Jawaharlal Nehru. Those of us who were children when India’s first Prime Minister passed away never attached any significance to his death anniversary; it was his birthday, celebrated as Children’s Day (November 14), that mattered more to us.

However, this 59th anniversary has suddenly become significant. For the events of the very next day brought into vivid focus what Nehru stood for. Though he died in 1964, the marks of his personality remained within and all around us. Alas!

They were negated on May 28, 2023, the day India’s new Parliament building was inaugurated. That day could be said to mark the symbolic death of the man who moulded Independent India. The modernity and rationalism that marked Nehru; his expansive and inclusive vision as a citizen of the world and as an Indian; his generosity of spirit and wide learning, his commitment to democracy — these qualities were conspicuous by their absence in the inauguration ceremony of the new Parliament building.

The chanting of mantras, the purifying, sacrificial ritual of the havan, the phalanx of priests — what did all of this have to do with the Parliament of a secular country? Watching this elaborate performance of a Hindu religious ceremony reminded one of the strict rules accompanying it. Would a menstruating woman, a widow, or anyone else considered ‘impure’, have been allowed into that sacred space? As Prime Minister Narendra Modi prostrated himself before the golden 'sengol', surrounded by priests, one could only think of the coronations of yore, where priests anointed the ruler, signifying the ultimate blending of the divine and the temporal that marks a theocracy.

When did India join the ranks of countries such as Iran and Great Britain, which mix religion and governance? One of the fundamental duties enjoined on us by the Constitution is to strive to develop a “scientific temper...and the spirit of inquiry and reform”. Neither of these were on display in the spectacle put up by the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on May 28. The pomp and ceremony witnessed there actually violated the Constitution, by stamping Parliament with the religion of the majority. It didn’t end with that: for all time, the space in which our elected representatives will enact laws will have a Hindu sceptre occupying pride of place.

One doesn’t have to be anti-Hindu to reject the symbolism of the 'sengol'. One only has to be true to the Constitution. A religious symbol from the days of monarchy has no place in the Parliament of a country where citizens of all faiths are equal, and where the Prime Minister is nothing but the first among equals. In the inauguration of our new Parliament building, there were no equals, there was only a first, and he was unmistakably Hindu.

Those of us who came of age in the late ’60s and ’70s, the period which saw the birth of the Naxalites, the emergence of Dalit Panther literature, new wave cinema, and feminism, were often critical of those who led us to freedom. They didn’t do enough to change Indians, we grumbled, let alone change the basically unequal structure of our society. Mahatma Gandhi was too religious; Nehru too soft in implementing his socialism and rationalism. What we needed was the radicalism of Subhas Chandra Bose and Bhagat Singh, but they were snatched away.

Today, however, we can only be grateful for the way Gandhi, Nehru and their colleagues, as well as B R Ambedkar and the members of the Constituent Assembly, steered an ancient country into modernity, however incomplete that process may have been. It’s thanks to them that certain principles became so basic we took them for granted, viz religion must be kept far away from State policy; citizens of all faiths and castes are equal; the judiciary must be independent of the executive; the press is the fourth pillar of democracy; everyone has the right to protest peacefully…When the new Parliament building was being inaugurated, not only was the President denied her due; Olympic medal-winners protesting peacefully against sexual harassment by a BJP MP were being dragged away by the police.

When the BJP won its second majority in the 2019 elections, the slogan ‘Jai Sri Ram’, which has become a slogan of Hindutva aggression since the Ayodhya movement, was raised by newly-elected MPs inside Parliament during the oath-taking ceremony. Obviously, these MPs of the ruling party saw themselves as ‘proud Hindus’ first, rather than representatives of people belonging to all faiths in a secular democracy. Neither the Speaker nor Prime Minister Narendra Modi stopped them from raising this slogan.

That was the beginning of the descent of a secular Parliament into a religious one, that has now reached its zenith.

(Jyoti Punwani is a senior journalist.)

Disclaimer: The views expressed above are the author's own. They do not necessarily reflect the views of DH.