Book review
Ever since 1986, when the locks on the gates of the makeshift Ram Lalla temple within the precincts of the Babri Masjid were opened, the debate over secularism and communalism has been revived in all its sound and fury. It now occupies centre stage in our public discourse.

In Confessions of a Secular Fundamentalist, Mani Shankar Aiyar, parliamentarian, commentator and crusader for a secular credo, calls for an unambiguous and decisive restoration of secularism to the core of our nationhood. In doing so, he revisits every dimension of our secular ethos and exposes the various myths perpetuated by communal elements of all hues. Putting under the scanner contentious issues like conversions, uniform civil code and Article 370, he nails the falsehood underlying terms like `pseudo-secularism', `appeasement' and `soft Hindutva'. And he places the domestic debate over secularism in India in the wider external dimension by discussing the experiences of countries like Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Israel and erstwhile Yugoslavia.

Admitting to wearing his secularism on his sleeve, Aiyar reasons that only a determined and inflexible adherence to secularism, in principle and in practice, can counter religious bigotry and fundamentalism.

About the author Mani Shankar Aiyar, Minister of Petroleum and Natural Gas, and Panchayati Raj, is also a well-known author and columnist who penned the popular weekly column `Mani-Talk' in Sunday magazine, later resumed in the Telegraph of Kolkata. He also had a column in the Indian Express and in UPI, Washington, besides writing for a number of English, Hindi and Tamil journals. His earlier books include Remembering Rajiv (1992), One Year in Parliament (1993), Pakistan Papers (1994), and Knickerwallahs, Silly-Billies and Other Curious Creatures (1995). He also edited a four-volume publication Rajiv Gandhi's India (1997). Essays by him have been included in several books, including Guns and Roses (2000). Mani Shankar Aiyar is the founder-president of the Society for Secularism.