It is impossible to fight for secularism without fighting against casteism, gender inequality, and fundamentalism, CPI(M) Polit Bureau member Brinda Karat has said. Opening a seminar, Women gathering for secularism, organised by the All India Democratic Women’s Association (AIDWA) here on Friday, she said attack on fundamental values of secularism particularly affected women as it was directly linked to the way women dress, what they eat, their movement, dignity, autonomy, and security.
She said secularism was the glue that held together diverse facets of our nation, and that it was not a choice but a necessity. Explaining the concept of secularism, she said that it was much more than the popular definition of ‘equal respect to all religions’. “Religion is a personal and private matter. Everyone has the right to believe or not to believe a religion. However, the different arms of the state should not have any religious identity,” Ms. Karat said.
Brushing aside the popular misconception that secularists were anti-religious, she said the concept of ‘Hindutva’ as propagated by the right wing groups in India was completely separate from the ‘Hindu’ religious identity, and there were deliberate attempts to confuse the two. “Hindutva is just a political platform and is based on Manusmriti . It has nothing to do with the Hindu religious identity,” she said.
Ms. Karat also questioned the relative silence of secularists when the Muslim Personal Law Board moved the Supreme Court in favour of triple talaq, fearing that their protests would only help Hindutva supporters. She criticised the Madhya Pradesh government for its move to appoint astrologists in hospitals alongside doctors as an effort to replace science with superstition. She also lashed out against killings across the country by cow vigilantes.
AIDWA Kerala president Susan Kodi presided over the seminar in which media person Chethana Theerthahalli, writer Kahadeeja Mumtaz, scriptwriter Deedhi Damodaran, State secretary of AIDWA P. Satheedevi and State treasurer C.S. Sujatha shared their views.
