Vichaar

It's 15th August - our national holiday or as we proudly call it : INDEPENDENCE DAY. It's a day where all of us feel very patriotic and proud to belong to this land. This day, we tend to remember our national heroes, the sacrifices they made in getting us free and our hearts are filled with a rejuvenated passion towards our country, the emotions oozing through pompous flag hoisting ceremonies and the sound of patriotic songs being played throughout the day. Indeed, it's a very special day deserving all our attention. Not just to remember what happened on 15th August, 1947 but to remind ourselves of what values we as a nation together stand for. All of us have our personal allegiance to something or someone, a particular cause that drives us and which matters the most to us. But we should never forget that it is this free and sovereign land and system of governance we got on 15th August, 1947 that propels our personal goals and ambitions. Had it been a colonial rule, we prob...

India is a secular nation in principle and guided by the Constitution of India we adopted in 1950. The basis of law & order in India is governed by Our Constitution. When I say we are secular, I mean 1) Everyone is free to practice their religion as long as it doesn't affect the fundamental rights of the others. 2) The state shall have no religion of its own and it will treat all the religions as equal. 3) All the policies of the Government and laws of the Constitution will apply equally to all the citizens of the country and no discrimination shall be made. However being a large democratic country accommodating diverse groups of people cut across caste, creed, language, culture, region, there can't be a one-liner definition of secularism that everyone can interpret in their own way and therefore, we have seen time and again how the judiciary upholds the Constitutional values in case of disputes. We saw the Supreme Court judgement on Triple Talaq. We saw the Supreme Court j...