Just read in the TOI today that a High Court Judge has recommended that the Bhagvad Gita be made the national dharma shastra.

I am not a scholar of the Gita, and I have only given it a cursory read. Even so, I accept that all the concepts in the Gita are entirely great and inspiring.

But I wonder... the Bhagvad Gita is essentially seen as a Hindu book- on par with the Christian Bible and the Muslim Q'uran. And in a secular country like India, is it justifiable to take one religion's holy doctrines and want it to be made the nation's? However exemplary the doctrines may be?

The learned judge says that just as India has a national flag, a national anthem, a national animal, a national bird.... it can have the Bhagvad Gita as its national religious doctrine!!!

In a country which follows several dharmas, how can you have a single 'unifying' dharma sastra? And why do you need the Gita to be declared as the country's holy doctrine? Even without it, so many Hindus and non-Hindus follow the example set in the Gita of doing one's duty, without hope of a reward or fear of a backlash.

Seems to me like the venerable judge is opening Pandora's box with this one.... I wonder what will follow this recommendation.