Secularim, as practised in India

B S Raghavan, who is a regular writer in Businessline, a reputed business paper of “The Hindu Group” in Chennai, has written the following regarding the “Coverage of Orissa, Karnataka trouble’ in his article on 3rd October.

Reams have been written and billions of sound bytes have gone on air describing in lurid detail all that happened to the churches and the Christian community, with no equal space given for the real cause of all the trouble.

Swami Lakshmananda was a revered figure in Orissa who was engaged in service to the weaker and vulnerable sections of the population. Allegedly, the local Christian votaries of conversion saw him as a thorn in their flesh. Whatever that be, the fact was that some time ago he was victim of attack by a gang bent on doing away with him. Luckily, he escaped at that time, but his enemies had their way the second time.

The center could have set all speculation at rest if, with all the mighty and extensive intelligence and investigative machinery at its disposal, it had ascertained the truth behind the murders of the Swami and his associates and unhesitatingly named the desperadoes. Its own inability, or unwillingness, to expose the forces that were behind the killing should be taken to have contributed to the flare-up that followed in Kandhamal.

Similarly, as regards Mangalore and Bangalore, those who are quick to castigate the state government gloss over the extreme provocation contained in an obnoxious pamphlet. “Satya Darshini” in Kannada language, circulated in the name of an outfit called the New Life Church, scathingly denigrating Hindu gods and goddesses in the foulest language.

Since all the manifestations of anger from the side of so-called Saffron Brigade have been set out in graphic detail day after day, fairness in maintaining balance calls for revealing a few examples from the pamphlet to illustrate the revolting nature of its vilification of Hinduism.

“When the Trinity of Hinduism (Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva) are consumed by lust and anger, how can they liberate others? Their projection as Gods is nothing but a joke. (Page 39)

“When Vishnu asked Brahma to commit a sin, he immediately did so. How can such “evil Brahma” be a Creator of this Universe? How is it possible for both the sinner and the entity that provoked the sin to be gods? (Page 39)

“God, please liberate the sinful people of India who are worshipping false Gods that believe in the pleasures of illicit relationships? (Page 39)

I want to ask the holier-than-thou commentators to tell me whether any other community anywhere in the world would tolerate such scurrilous observations about what is regarded as holy and sacred?

Why, then, show this perverse support to sacrilege perpetrated against Hinduism alone and work overtime lambasting the spontaneous reaction of largely of simple and pious people who are sustained in their quotidian hardships by their faith in their gods and goddesses? To me, somehow, it does not stand to reason or common sense.

There is another aspect of this perversity. It gives a handle to foreign governments and busybodies to badmouth India as a den of fanatical Hindus who love nothing better than being at the throats of persons of other faiths.

A country, which rained death and destruction in Iraq by flaunting a tissue of lies, indulged in unspeakable atrocities in Abu Ghraib and for the last eight years, has kept Muslim detenus in Guantanamo Bay without trial, treating them worse than vermin advises us on how to deal with minorities.

In sum, the secularism as practiced in the country is letting it down, besides polarizing the population.

It is time a body of persons reputed for their objectivity and erudition (excluding politicians) went into the meaning and implications of secularism and communalism.