Using state power to enforce the sacred, both defiles the sacred and messes with the secular. Discuss in the light of the proposed Punjab’s sacrilege law. (200 words)
Refer – The Indian Express
Enrich the answer from other sources, if the question demands.
IAS Parliament 6 years
KEY POINTS
· Punjab Cabinet recently decided to amend the law to make acts of “sacrilege against the religious books” punishable with life imprisonment.
Defiles the sacred
· The amendment defiles the sacredness of the Books, the eternity of the Words because the status of the Book now becomes an artefact of state power.
· Rather than being luminous, potent and transcendent texts, their status is now reduced to a section of the Indian Penal Code.
· It is if the songs of Krishna, or the word of Mohammad, or the teaching of the Gurus, now need the imprimatur of state violence to secure their sacredness.
Messes with the secular
· Blasphemy laws are largely aimed at preserving public order that might get disturbed by actions that flare up religious sentiments.
· While the sanctity of the religion is indeed important, a secular state works not to preserve religion but to preserve law and individual freedoms.
· Hence, the argument that the state needs to use coercive power in deference to religious sentiments (however sincere those sentiments might be), is illiberal and dangerous.
· In this context, actions perpetrated with the deliberate and malicious intention of outraging religious feelings and stir passions have to be curtailed.
· Hence, while laws need to be a minimum safeguard and limited in scope, the current proposal seeks to appease religious groups disproportionately.
