Double standards
- First, there is religion based violence in Karnataka and Orissa. Within a few days, the Central Government issues a warning to both states threatening to use Article 355 of the Constitution if no action is taken.
- Article 355 of the Constitution states the following “It shall be the duty of the Union to protect every State against external aggression and internal disturbance and to ensure that the Government of every State is carried on in accordance with the provisions of this Constitution“
- Now, article 15 of our constitution talks about factors which cannot be criteria for discrimination – “The State shall not discriminate against any citizen on grounds only of religion, race, caste, sex, place of birth or any of them“
- Religion and language/place-of-birth are both equally concerning grounds for the Government of India, according to the Constitution at least.
- There is open, law-defying violence against “outsiders” in Maharashtra since months now.
- The Central Government does not even whisper about Article 355 or any other article (I am sure there are tens of other Constitutional articles, which as parameters, highlight the failure of government machinery to prevent violence)
- Oops, I forgot – what benefit does the party running the Central Government get by protecting Biharis and UP folks? They don’t score in those states anyways.
- Oops, I forget again – what benefit does protecting Biharis and UP folks bring in terms of increasing “secularism” in India.
- Again – am I forgetting something – is there a connection between the Central and Maharashtra governments?
Shri hari,
You ‘ve forgotten to mention serial bomb blasts ,which does not warrant resignation of anyone from central govt and yet 355 is a must for non congress govt.
chiraan
chiraan
November 2, 2008 at 3:15 pm
Hari, this post was quite interesting to me. So is http://ananthnarayan.blogspot.com/2008/11/question-time.html The
topic of Maharashtra violence had triggered another chain of
thoughts in me. Please see http://sripathikodi.blogspot.com/2008/11/my-crazy-thoughts.html.
Sripathi Kodi
November 14, 2008 at 8:37 pm