The Constitution of India declares the nation a secular republic. Despite this, the nation's left-leaning Congress Party has long sought to appease conservative religionists. That is, as long as they are members of a minority religious community. This results in a deeply hypocritical approach to governance, in which the Congress Party fails to stand up for liberalism and universal human rights in the face of theocrats. The party may pay lip service to progressive causes, but, as we all know, actions speak louder than words.
This is evident in Congress Party Vice President Rahul Gandhi's “welcoming” of the Indian Supreme Court's decision a few weeks ago to ban triple talaq, a practice whereby one can instantly divorce one's spouse simply by stating “talaq, talaq, talaq,” provided that one meets the government's requirements of being 1) Muslim and 2) male. Both the party and Rahul's father, former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi, protected the practice in an attempt to appease its regressive base in the 1980s. The major opposition party, BJP, is no better. The party claims to defend “Hindu” values, but more often than not simply defends the most regressive attitudes imported by the Christian British and Islamic Mughal colonizers.
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