Introspecting Secular Liberals

Going by it’s definition, Seculars are expected to be ‘not connected with religious or spiritual matters’; and Liberals are expected to be ‘willing to respect or accept behaviour or opinions different from one's own; open to new ideas’. In either of the cases they are expected to be not aligned with any particular ideology, religious / social or otherwise. They are ought to be neutral & just towards any & every other ideology. And while maintaining own liberal image they are not expected to be biased towards any section & far from selective discrimination.

 

Reviewing the track of past 3-4 decades, Secular Liberals have majorly been anti-establishment, and having a section of society anti-establishment is one of the important requisites for healthy democracy. Hence, none have evaluated the core of being Secular Liberal. Conversely, seculars have to co-exist with the right & left wingers; exist with rationale & without prejudices. Debates, arguments, multidimensional opinions had always been stronghold of Secular Liberals; as the core characteristics drive, they must be open to arguments & logics from every ideology and mould themselves with the better rationale, if any. Considering their trails, it would be difficult for the seculars to adapt to the fairer side but there is a huge number of followers of secular liberals who would revisit their rationale & perspectives. Over a period, more than being rational, the secular liberals have knowingly / unknowingly developed an image of being anti-certain section due to the selective discrimination; besides, the repeated selective discrimination has led to moral boosting of the other sections.

 

As against the established image, secular liberals seem to have started revising their stance after the Tablighi Jamaat Markaz episode. Although few liberals have echoed sentiments of not aligning with the Tablighi Jamaat owing to Tablighi’s repeated inhumane & antinational activities during past one week, few are still on agenda of safeguarding Tablighi. Equating the acts of Tablighi with every other possible happenings in the country, blaming it on everything else but Tablighis, and many more ways, few liberals are helping the Tablighi get much needed clean chit. If not clean chit, at least diverting the attention to other things thereby reducing the gravity of their extremism. Following conventional methodology, showcasing discrete welfare measures & sympathising social media posts are used in damage control mode. Also, deliberate attempts with fake tweets & fake news are still being used to prove Markaz not-guilty. Such deceptive tactics, misguiding tweets / posts, etc are part & parcel of the ideological social media warfare; deciding & accepting its magnitudes purely depends on individual’s wisdom.

 

If seculars continue being on the same line, soon they will be history. Because world will change its course, but extremist have proved it time & again that they will not change at any cost. Extremists may use some deceptive measures, appear mellowed down for a short span of time, but will surely surface with repeated heinous acts. This may sound prejudiced, but enough case studies are available in open domain in this regard; one needs to access them with open eyes & mind. It’s high time that the secular liberals, at least the activists on ground, revisit their various activisms in last 3-4 decades and introspect for selective discrimination & deceptive measures to attack ideological opponents. No extremist organisation would reach the brutality & ruthlessness in a short span of time, and this definitely is the effect of a sustained encouragement & nourishment directly or indirectly.

 

Referring to the latest in discussion, the Tablighi Jamaat Markaz - The foul cry of “need not equate all muslims for the acts of Tablighi” is an argument out-of-place at first instance. Every citizen of India know that fact very well, as every second citizen has some or other muslim friend / colleague at personal level & never equates them to extremist. The media and liberals had no hesitation whatsoever in attributing Hinduism to Babas like Asaram, RamRahim & others and bashing Hindus out rightly; no Hindu blamed media / seculars or cried foul by saying “need not equate all Hindus for the acts of Babas”. During past 3-4 decades it is evidently seen that whenever any muslim extremist/s executes any fanatic act, certain section of media & secular liberal leaders louds the theory of “need not equate all muslims” and the rest modus operandi follows; equating it with similar incidents from past without considering the authenticity, scale & intent of the two, disowning that individual / group for time being, shielding the perpetrators with one or more “intellectual sounding” academic argument/s and providing them all the required legal assistance in the long run. At times, *discreetly such incident may sound worth shielding, but the continuous series of such atrocious acts of extremists (may be from different section of society at every instance) has been instrumental in demining various pillars of governing systems*. And this continuous process has indirectly been contributory in moral boosting of the extremists over the prolonged period. The various freedom seeking agitations can be added to the list, depending on the acceptance level & wisdom of individual liberal. In any case, *the worst affected is the system of the nation which faces the burnt & criticism; thereby damaging the image of Indian system* from the point of view of the layman.

 

The extremists’ mayhems have not erupted overnight but has been ushered by the soft supports by one & many over the decades. The inception, grooming & development of various extremist muslim organisations across the globe had been studied by many including secular liberals; and almost all of them attributing it to everything else but the extremists themselves. We have enormous references / literature about positive & negatives about RSS, the mother organisation of right wing in India which is approx 95 yrs old. The source & authenticity of these reference & literature can be debated on various grounds, but at least RSS has been in open, studied, praised or criticised for a long duration. However, the 93 yrs old Tablighi has never been studied by secular liberals or any other section of intellectuals and their ideologies, methodology, etc has hardly ever been unveiled. This selective discrimination can be & is a big reason to worry. This particular comparison is just an example, and one can sight many such relating to various other incidences.

 

In this multidimensional era with information pouring in from various directions, deciphering every bit of it & concluding is individual’s choice, capacity & wisdom. Secular liberals have a giant role to play in this regard. They have to ensure that the rationale is “rational” & prejudices should have no room in defining the features of the secular liberal of modern India. Out rightly discarding every bit of left & right is not the solution but accepting every fair solution from either side is. Instead of being exclusive, secular liberals have to strive to be inclusive for being what they are ought to be.