The major focus of the whole debate are the following words which have appeared in the press and said to be part of the letter to PM.   Justice Joseph added that though it is “too late to reschedule the events. But being the guardian of Indian secularism, I request your honour to kindly have in mind these concerns while scheduling events and benevolently show equal importance and respect to the sacred days of all religions which are also declared as national holidays.  I have shared these concerns with the honourable Chief Justice of India as well.”

We know bankers are required to work on so many holidays irrespective of the sacred days and they are also asked to sit late on lot of many such sacred days.   Certainly, there is a need to respect the religious sentiments of all religions as India is a secular country.  In Hinduism it is believed that there are 33 crore Gods.   However, question arises, what will happen,  if people raise the issue that the following days are also sacred as they have faith in that particular type of religion / God:-

     (a) Hindu MPs, MLAs may soon ask not to schedule any Lok Sabha / Rajya Sabha sessions during Navrataras as these are sacred days for them;

     (b) Muslim community may plea that the period of one month when they have Ramzan and keep rozas is the most sacred and thus no functions of whatsoever should be scheduled for all those days.

    (c) Women across India may object to holding any function on Karva Chauth and Raksha Bandhan as these are sacred for them and they want to be with their family.  Male members can say on these occasions that they need to be with their wives and sisters owing to religious sentiments.   

    (d)    Similarly people from other religions like Sikhism, Buddhism, Jainism , Paris too will come out with demands not to schedule any events on their sacred days.

Above all, a person who claims to be totally Secular, may say that he believes in all these faiths equally and he will not attend any function or event on any of these days, as he wishes to be with family during all these days !

Huge number of population working in Defence services (a large number of them having been posted on border with no leave for family even during sacred days), Railways, Transport, Hospitals, Banks, are posted far away from their families and are forced to remain at the place of posting and working on such days also due to exigencies of work. 

Writing a letter to a PM on such issue and creating flutter is something which could have been easily avoided by Honourable Judge by calling his family to join in Delhi and enjoy celebrations and also attending to the event.   On many occasions, when it was extremely difficult to get leave from Bank, we have called our family to join us at the place of posting.   It used to cost a lot but we were left with no choice.  

To try to shift the blame on PM for such a controversy is in poor light specially when  Narendra Modi has visited US during the scared days of Navratras  and attended all the functions without taking any food for five days and living merely on Nimbu Paani.   This was extreme step that any high level politician has ever attempted, wherein the interests of the country were kept above the religious sentiments.    PM  could have easily asked to re-schedule his visit on account of scared days as he might have wished to go to Temples or do some pooja.

This is high time for people at the top posts to shed their obsessions for such issues as it will result in more problems in future as India is too diverse and secular to attend to all such issues.   Soon the Judge may find some lawyer in Supreme Court taking leave in a critical case on the plea that the lawyer has to  go to attend family get together as it is a period of  Navratras or Holy Ramzan.    I do not know whether every time, another date will be fixed for hearing in such cases, resulting in more and more delays in such cases.