Let us not reduce India to unidirectional, exclusionist force: Pavan K Varma

Former Rajya Sabha MP Pavan K Varma said on Saturday that India should not be reduced to a "unidirectional, straightjacketed, exclusionist force" as it will divide the country.

Talking on the topic of "Why fear a dharmic nation" at the Times Lit Fest here, the former bureaucrat emphasised that it was important to learn "tolerance, compassion and the ability for forgiveness" in a country where we live "cheek by jowl".

"...let us not today reduce this republic, which is also a great civilisation and which for millennia was Hindu, into a unidirectional, straightjacketed, exclusionist force, because I believe, for pragmatic reasons alone, it will divide India.

"People of different faiths are not living in geographically isolated areas. We live cheek by jowl. Therefore, it is more important that we become a dharmic nation whereby we learn tolerance, compassion, the ability for forgiveness. These are our strengths and our unique calling card to the world," Varma said.

Earlier, he argued that the implementation of the principles of secularism has been compromised in India through minority appeasement and vote bank politics, and added there is evidence to show majoritarian politics of Hinduism is being used for vote banks.

"But because there is misuse I am not prepared to throw the baby out with the bath water to say that a country like ours will be called a Hindu Rashtra, not in its civilisational sense of being a dharmic nation but in its narrow interpretation of one religion is supreme in India. Because I draw inspirations against this idea not only from the Constitution but from among the principles of Hinduism itself," he added.