Sound the secular bugle | The Indian Express

Sound the secular bugle | The Indian Express

Written by Mani Shankar Aiyar |Updated: June 4, 2019 12:30:57 am

The writer is a former Union minister.

Sound the secular bugle

As the new government takes its oath of office, it is necessary to restore to public discourse the passionate advocacy and practice of secularism.

This is not the time for pious hopes. It is time to sound again the bugle of secular fundamentalism.(Illustration: C R Sasikumar)

While for tactical electoral reasons, the Congress and other Opposition parties chose to eschew the word “secularism” in the election campaign, M K Stalin in Tamil Nadu boldly altered the name of the alliance he was leading in his state from “United Progressive Alliance” (UPA) to “Secular Progressive Alliance”. SPA won. UPA lost.