HVK Archives: Gadgil calls for introspection
Gadgil calls for introspection - Observer of Business & Politics
Kiran Thakur
()
3 June 1996
Title : Gadgil calls for introspection
Author : Kiran Thakur
Publication : Observer of Business & Politics
Date : June 3, 1996
AICC spokesman V N Gadgil on Sunday said that it was time the
Congress re-examined the contents of its concept of secularism in
the wake of the setback it had received in the recent Lok Sabha
elections.
He said that the party had failed miserably to convince both the
Hindus and the Muslims about its ideology in the recent past.
The Hindus believed that the party pampered the Muslims and that
the Muslims were rigid in their attitude. At the same time, the
Muslims continued to believe that the party had links with the
RSS and that the Congress was responsible for the demolition of
Babri Masjid, Mr Gadgil said.
It was time for retrospection and to come out in the open to
clarify if it wanted to be dharmanirapeksha (secularism) or it
wanted to pursue sarvadharmasamabhava (treating all
relgions as equal), he felt.
Declining to elaborate, Mr Gadgil said that he would speak about
this in the Congress Working Committee scheduled to be held later
this month. But, answering a question, he said that the party
had failed to explain to the people its stand on major issues
such as common civil code or the BJP's demand for scrapping
Article 370.
He said that, for example, the party did not spell out the
provisions in the law enacted after the Shahbano case. Under the
provision in IPC, a woman was entitled to limitless alimony as
against Rs 400 admissible earlier. This was not brought to
notice when the issue generated controversy.
Similarly, the party should have explained the futility of the
talk of Common Civil Code, he said. "When one talks of such a
code, it would be expected that it would be formulated after
culling out provisions in the codes for all the religions," he
said.
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