SRINAGAR: In a civilized society nationalism has to be subordinate to humanism and democracy. Hitlarian nationalism takes reactionary form and downgrades the human values, according to Mr. V.M. Tarkunde, former chief justice of the Bombay High Court.
Delivering a lecture on the “Human Rights and National Interest” at the Tagore Hall here on Thursday, Mr. Tarkunde declared that civil liberties could not be usurped in national interest nor could those in power be described or claim to be more nationalist than those who are in the opposition.
He said no nation could be called or claims to be great if the individuals living in it are not great and products of value based society.
Civil liberties granted to the people of India under articles 21, 14 and 19 did not permit the government at the Centre and the states to curtail freedom of individuals without trial in a court of law, he said.
Mr. Tarkunde contested the claim that democracy represented the majority rule even if the laws enacted by the majority were unjust, anti-people and restricted human rights. Laws had to be just, helpful not to some but to all, liberal progressive in outlook and not “black” like Public Safety Act in Jammu and Kashmir and National Security and Terrorist Prevention Act in rest of India, he declared.
Mr. Tarkunde said both in Jammu and Kashmir and rest of India, including in non-Congress (I) states, anti-liberty laws were bound to be misused by those at the helm.
He called for just and equality based economic planning so that every individual had economic rights irrespective of his religious, caste, regional and political leanings.
Women continued to be denied their right of equality and considered property of men. There could not be two yardsticks for men and women, if woman committed sati after death of her husband and man appreciated it why, shouldn’t men also commit sati after their wives died, he asked. The unequal-progress in the country whereby more than 85 per cent people still suffered economic stagnation was a result of unjust economic planning, Mr. Tarkunde declared.
According to him nationalism could not be devoided of civil liberties and democracy if it had to be “progressive nationalism.”
The days of the “Gandhi Raj and Nehru Raj” were over. Indian people had to devise for themselves a system in which politics does not continue to become a hub for self-interest and selfish people, he added.
Unfortunately, in this country the idealism of the national movement was no more and politicians had made politics a “business” for advancing their own interests.
Indian politicians become pro Hindu or pro-Muslim and sometimes pro-both and play Hindu card or Muslim card as and when it suits them.
Mr. Tarkunde said that communalism in India had increased because of politics of casteism and religious fanaticism played the politicians.
He said the people of India must expose these selfish leaders who play them against each other for your god cannot be greater or smaller than my god and your religion cannot be smaller than my religion.
Mr. Tarkunde said India and Pakistan were suffering because of selfishness of politicians. They ‘were spending more on arms and nuclear installations in spite of their being deep down below the developmental ladder.
The people of India had the right have better living conditions and so were the people of Pakistan If both countries fritter away their scare resources on nuclear installation, they would be doing disservice to their people.
Referring to the recent arrests of Kashmir youth, Mr. Tarkunde said they should be tried in a court of law if they were involved in sedition.
He said nobody could be condemned into jail without a legal order of a magistrate. Justice demanded they should get a chance to prove themselves innocent.
Mr. Tarkunde criticized the state government for constantly rigging the Assembly elections. The people of Kashmir like rest of India should be given might to throw out the party in power and elect another party to power, he declared.
Earlier, Mr. Balraj Puri, convener of the People’s Union for Civil Liberties, said that the unfortunate thing about Kashmir was that it never had same civil liberty and freedom as enjoyed’ by the other states of India,
Mr Puri said the rights of the people, particularly the Fundamental Rights and rights of expression and press could not be denied in the name of national interest.
“Loyalty towards the nation was not same as loyalty towards the government in power, he declared.
Article extracted from this publication >> November 4, 1988
