‘Modi regime turning secularism into mockery’ : Prasanth Bhushan

Thiruvananthapuram, May 28 (BPNS)

Human rights activist and senior lawyer of the Supreme Court of India, Prasanth Bhushan has said that the BJP government led by Narendra Modi was turning secularism in the country into a mockery.

The senior lawyer was delivering the M.P. Veerendra Kumar memorial lecture at Kozhikode on Sunday.  The noted lawyer said that the BJP government at the centre was destroying all the democratic institutions in the country.

Prasanth Bhushan in his speech said, “The President of the country is not invited for the inauguration of the new building of the parliament, instead a large number of Hindu pontiffs  and seers are present.” He said that the Prime Minister has turned the inauguration of the parliament new building into a spectacular religious show when the importance of parliament has been reduced to nothing.

He said that the inauguration of parliament has taken place when the parliament was not functioning in a democratic manner and added that the number of sittings in parliament has come down to sixty in a year.

The senior lawyer said that the amount of time spent in parliament debates and discussions has come down to ten percent of what it used to be in the heydays of parliament.

Prasanth Bhushan said that secularism as a basic structure of the constitution has been severely assaulted by the present regime under Prime Minister Narendra Modi. He said that the seven-member Supreme Court bench that had given the verdict in the Bommai case had clearly stated that the state should have no involvement in religious affairs.

He lamented that even though the Supreme Court has stipulated that secularism is part and parcel of the basic structure of the Constitution, the present basic regime was doing all it can to dismantle this fundamental character of the Constitution.

The senior lawyer recalled that M.P. Veerendrakumar was source of immense energy and inspiration for those who stood for a pluralistic India. Prasanth Bhushan said, “ If Veerendrakumar was alive today he would not only have been aghast but also would have spent every waking moment of his life to fight this catastrophe that has befallen us.”