DM Monitoring
KERALA: Turning Christian, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has read the theological riot act to the Left Democratic Front in Kerala.
It is another matter that were a national-level poll to be conducted to determine which political formation in the republic of India is most guilty of committing these sins, the results might surprise Modi distressingly. Be that as it may, the matter of the sins is rendered problematic by an earlier averment that the honourable prime minister once made, namely, that the “constitution” is “our holy book”.
That being so, a republican or constitutional order must oblige us to redraw the list of deadly sins, somewhat along the following lines:
• The subversion of secularism, a “basic feature” of the constitution enshrined in the very Preamble;
• Subversion of the fundamental right to free expression and to the freedom of choice;
• Subversion of the principle of equality before the law, wherein not only political and intellectual adversaries but all wrong doers are made answerable to justice without fear or favour;
• Subversion of the constitutional or statutory autonomy of state institutions in order to ensure public faith in their fair-minded and impartial investigation and scrutiny of public issues.
