The Opposition on Monday demanded that Tamil Nadu Governor RN Ravi be sacked for his remark that “secularism is a European concept” and India does not need it.
While speaking at an event in Kanyakumari district on Sunday, Ravi said that a “lot of frauds have been committed” on Indians and one of them was “a wrong interpretation of secularism”.
“In Europe, secularism came because there was a fight between the church and the king...” NDTV quoted Ravi as having said. “How can India be away from dharma? Secularism is a European concept and let it be there only. In India, there is no need for secularism.”
The governor added that secularism was not part of India’s Constitution and was added during the Emergency by “one insecure prime minister”, PTI reported.
Indira Gandhi was the prime minister during the Emergency between 1975 and 1977.
Congress leader Jairam Ramesh said that Ravi was “only a trial balloon floater” and that the Tamil Nadu governor was echoing what Prime Minister Narendra Modi wants to get done. "This is not the first outrageous and unacceptable statement he has made," Ramesh said on social media.
The Congress MP added: “This man, who has taken an oath on the Constitution, and who – in spite of his drumbeating - remains a Constitutional functionary, should be sacked forthwith. He is a disgrace.”
Tamil Nadu’s ruling Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam also criticised Ravi for his comment.
“Secularism is the most needed concept in India, not in Europe,” party spokesperson TKS Elangovan said, according to the Hindustan Times. “Particularly the governor, he had not gone through the Constitution of India. Article 25 says that there should be a conscious freedom of religion that he doesn’t know. He should go and read the constitution fully.”
Ravi, a former bureaucrat, became the governor of Tamil Nadu in September 2021.
Brinda Karat, a leader of the Communist Party of India (Marxist), said the comment by Ravi was perplexing because it meant that the Constitution “doesn’t hold much value for him”, NDTV reported.
“The governor’s statement shows that he thinks that the Constitution is also a foreign concept,” Karat was quoted as saying. “Those who believe in the Constitution, those who question it are sitting in the governor’s chair...”
Karat said that the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party had been appointing persons who do not believe in the country’s Constitution as governors.
Manickam Tagore, the Congress MP from Tamil Nadu’s Virudhunagar, said that Ravi’s comment was against the Constitution. “While the idea of secularism may be different in foreign countries, in India we respect all other religions, we respect all other traditions and we respect all other practices and this is the idea of secularism in India,” Tagore said on social media.
Tagore added that the BJP and its parent organisation, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, want to change the Constitution but the Opposition will not let this happen.
Also read:
- Removing ‘secularism’ from the preamble will sound democracy’s death knell: ex-SC judge KM Joseph
- The BJP is wrong: Merely removing the word ‘secular’ from the Constitution won’t make it any less so
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