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Opinion National Interest PoV 50-Word Edit

ThePrint On Camera Videos In Pictures

Society & Culture Around Town Book Excerpts Vigyapanti The Dating Story

More Judiciary Education YourTurn Work With Us Campus Voice

Modi, Amit Shah or Yogi never pretended to be liberals—the ‘secular’ politicians did

Whatever you may think of Narendra Modi or Amit Shah or Yogi Adityanath, every one who voted for them knew what they stood for.

If you listen to many liberal voices, the problem with today’s India is that we have handed seemingly unlimited power to the BJP. Not only is the secular character of our Constitution being undermined but our entire legislative system — from the Election Commission to the presiding officers of both Houses of Parliament — is being subverted. Even the balance of federal power is now sought to be changed with the Hindi–belt states gaining more representation in a parliamentary delimitation exercise.

I have one fundamental difference with the liberal position. I don’t blame the BJP. I blame the so-called secular politicians.

Whatever you may think of Narendra Modi or Amit Shah or even Yogi Adityanath, every one who voted for them knew what they stood for. None of these leaders ever misrepresented their positions or pretended to be liberals or secularists. They are simply implementing an agenda they have long advocated.

Sadly, that is not true of many of the politicians who once told us that they subscribed to liberal values and assured the minorities that they would stand up for their interests. Liberalism, it now turns out, was nothing more than a flag of convenience for them.

Consider the sordid spectacle of what is happening to the Trinamool Congress. People who campaigned all over West Bengal less than a month ago, attacking the BJP and saying that they were fighting for a pluralistic........

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