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VIF organized Vimarhsa on Saturday, July 20, 2013, where senior advocate Mahesh Jethmalani dwelt at length on the topic ‘Institutional Subversion in India – Implications for the Nation and its Security’.

In his introductory remarks, Ajit Doval, KC, Director, VIF, regretted that the Indian society was more fragmented than at the time of Independence in 1947. He said there appeared to be some invisible hand that gave impetus to anything divisive and weakened anything that united.

In a sharp indictment of the ruling UPA, Jethmalani accused it of polarizing polity on religious grounds by demonizing the alternative (BJP in this case) and keeping minorities in a perpetual state of insecurity. He also charged the ruling Congress with portraying Hinduism and its political manifestations, both internationally and domestically, as irrational, militant, extremist and dangerously violent.

He alleged that the ruling party was using a vocal press, high profile NGOs, corrupt and pliable police force as also resorting to institutional subversion to camouflage its dangerous game.

He cited seven high profile cases in recent times in support of his argument. They included the burning to death of Hindus in Godhra, the Best Bakery Case. The Zakia case, Sohrabuddin and Ishrat Jahan case besides the Malegaon and Samjhauta blast cases where Hindus have been chargesheeted by the “constitutionally fragile” National Investigation Agency without any shred of evidence “only to exonerate the Muslim accused”.

Maintaining that the present Government was “hell bent on destroying every institution”, the noted jurist asserted that “nationalism requires Hindu spirituality and those who deny it are nothing but unmitigated morons”.

The session concluded with a thought provoking round of Q&A.