If you have ever seen a courtroom scene in a movie you would have noticed that before the witness gives his testimony he swears to “Tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth”. On 11th May 2022, far left propaganda website, Newslaundry, released a video “How the Meaning of Secularism has changed through the ages | Sansad Watch Ep 33”.
If the host of the video Meghnad had sworn the above oath he would be lying. This video is a masterful depiction of half-truths and complete omissions that the left likes to make, especially when discussing topics like secularism.
Meghnad started the video by showing an advertisement released by the govt on 26th January 2015 on the occasion of Republic Day. The ad had a backdrop image of the preamble of the constitution. Meghnad correctly said that the ad image did not have the words, Secular and Socialist, in the preamble image and at the time the ad was released there was a lot of outcry from the leftists and opposition leaders. But he told the half-truth. He conveniently failed to mention that BJP spokespersons explained that the image was of the original preamble of the constitution that was adopted on 26th January 1950, and not the one which Indira Gandhi had amended.
He then said that BJP chief ministers of states like Assam, Himanchal and Uttarakhand are calling for debate on the implementation of Uniform Civil Code. He framed the sentence in a way which seemed to suggest that this is wrong. What he conveniently forgot to mention is that it is part of Article 44 of the constitution where it states that the government should aim to bring a Uniform Civil Code.
By the way, a Uniform Civil Code is the very definition of Secularism. Under a Uniform Civil Code, there will be no different laws based on religion. The government will not discriminate among people based on their religion. Thus advocating for a Uniform Civil Code actually makes BJP the actual secular party.
After some examples of views of different members of the constituent assembly on the meaning of secularism, and their final decision not to include the word secular in the preamble of the constitution, he directly jumps to Indira Gandhi in the 1970s when she imposed the emergency and inserted the words “Secular” and “Socialist” in the preamble through a constitutional amendment. Here again, Meghnad displays his penchant for complete omissions.
He gave an example of K.M. Munshi who said that the government should be able to make laws related to social activities based on religion, especially if there were some socially regressive practices. This view was generally accepted by the constituent assembly. Meghnad failed to mention that Hindu Personal Laws were all reformed in the 1950’s and 70 years later we are still trying to debate reforming Muslim Personal Laws. Anyone who attempts to do it is termed communal. He conveniently failed to mention that only one group seems to have a problem with the Uniform Civil Code.
After covering Indira Gandhi’s constitutional amendment to insert the word “Secular”, he jumps to the 1980s to the famous Shah Bano case. He gives this case as an example of how the top court upheld the principles of secularism in giving maintenance to Shah Bano. But as usual, Meghnad tells the half-truth. He neglects to mention what happened just after the judgement when a “secular” Congress overturned the SC judgement to appease its Muslim vote bank.
The whole video was filled with these half-truths and complete omissions. The only thing I agree with Meghnad was that the definition of secularism is distorted by everyone. I would proudly say that Pseudo-Seculars like him have a definition of secularism which is 180 degrees opposite of the actual meaning of the word. This video shows how the left-liberal “intellectuals” peddle their lies and distort the truth.
