Singh Parivar

Why Arjun is stronger than Murli Manohar, and what that means for India

In Murli Manohar Joshi’s and Arjun Singh’s ministerial efforts we have had proof that radically different political ideologies can yield strikingly similar administrative praxis. Generally, therefore, our assessments of the two have been similar. It appears however we have been unfair to Singh. His ‘secularism’ is made of stronger stuff than Joshi’s ‘Hindutva’. As this newspaper reported on Sunday, Joshi clearly failed to carry out his ‘mandate’ in at least one respect. Foreign scholars were not only given visas on time — poof of a weak state — their choice of research subjects raised no saffron flag. A state inconsistently committed

to political correctness as then defined.

So, if all Joshi has to show for himself is asking for a semantic change in a research title, he must swallow his pride and learn from Singh: A Fulbright scholar only had to mention ‘Muslim’ in his/her academic plans for Singh’s HRD ministry to throw an impenetrable protective cover over the country’s ‘secular fabric’. Joshi’s HRD, in contrast, failed to spot the subversive implications against the Hindu Rashtra in such research topics as “Local roots of religious nationalism”, “Celebrating the living goddess” and “Playing in the Lord’s playground”. Even a study proposal about “Brahma Kumaris and globalisation” — the sacred and the swadeshi, both seemed to be targets — was allowed.

There are of course those who will say that Joshi, whatever his reasons, served his country better in this respect. That HRD acting as a paranoid gatekeeper of the nation’s socio-political morals does neither the country nor those morals any good. That Singh’s ministry’s approach to scholar visas produces situations like an American-Muslim filmmaker being denied permission to document the secularising potential of education as seen through the experience of a young Muslim girl. These same people will argue that ‘secularism’ as defined by Singh’s ministry obliterates all content from multi-religious, multi-ethnic India’s defining value system and, thus weakened, makes it vulnerable to attacks from religious extremists. That Singh seems to have a curious disrespect for Indian Islam’s cultural confidence. But we know Arjun Singh will be unmoved. He has a job to do. Not for him the Joshi-like occasional namby-pamby liberal indulgence.