Voices against communalism at Dakshinayan conference in Goa

Panaji: The three-day national Dakshinayan conference has urged the people to fight against communalism through political, social, judicial and constitutional responses and move towards a progressive India.

On the concluding day of Abhivyakti: Dakshinayan Rashtriya Parishad, a panel on an action plan to fight communalism moderated by educationist-turned-politician Prabhakar Timble and chaired by Harsha Wadkar, Hemant Shah and Anand Karandikar was of the unanimous view that the need of the hour is to guard freedom of expression of both minority communities, and the majority.

“Many people are either staunch nationalists, who are not ready to look at religion from any liberal point of view at all, or are extremely dogmatic religious believers,” Ms. Wadkar said. She wanted people to adopt a rational approach towards religion and also called for larger inter-religious dialogue and marriages.

Mr. Shah questioned the argument that the development of Gujarat in recent years is all owed to one man. He traced the history of Gujarat and pointed out that the State has been progressing faster than the rest of the country for many years together.

“Noticing the development done by one person is not a way of ignoring the communalism spread by the same person,” he said, and advocated the use of good governance practices to end communalism.

Mr. Karandikar expressed concern over the fact that intellectuals today seem to have forgotten the caste debate. After Ambedkar, there has not been a critique of caste-based discrimination on a vast scale for the last 50 years, he stated.

At the conference, political analyst-turned-politician and Swaraj Abhiyan leader Yogendra Yadav also warned of the attack to India’s fundamental values in the present times. “In present times, at a point when India is actually progressing, at a time when Indians actually have the power to help the poor in the country, we have turned our backs on them.”

He said the practice of politics and political arguments, the two pillars on which India stood have been eroded and that is why we are at this crossroads. He advocated the use of ‘swaraj’ in its complete sense — at the global, national, State and self-level.

Issues of bigamy and women being denied the right to enter temples during menstruation were also brought up. The three-day convention ended on Sunday late evening with a call to people to fight communalism across different platforms.