The problem with the Indian media is that it is completely lopsided when it reports on Hindu versus minorities issues so I really don’t know what are the ground realities. Just imagine yesterday a news reporter in NDTV India was lamenting the fact that when Kashmiri separatists wave the green Pakistani flag in the valley Hindus protest but when the same Hindu organizations foist a saffron flag atop a church nobody should question them. I’m not saying that forcibly foisting a saffron flag atop a church (after dismantling the church) is a done thing; but you can certainly not compare it to foisting a foreign flag in the Indian territory. Although this is rhetorical I’m just mentioning this fact to demonstrate what a sinister game is being played. And it is not just secular media that plays this sinister game; even the so-called nationalistic and Hindu-oriented newspapers do the same things. Today in The Pioneer instead of reporting what is going on in Orissa their headline reads “Christian bandh shuts down institutions”; they actually have the chutzpah of blaming Christians for protesting the state of rioting going on in Orissa. Man, we are in a real mess when it comes to morality and conscience.
Coming back to the question in the heading: should Shiv Sena and Bajrang Dal be banned just the way SIMI is banned? Based on the records of the past SIMI is a terrorist organization that places bombs at public places to cause large-scale destruction. Shiv Sena and Bajrang Dal instigate people and organize and orchestrate riots. So yes in their own big and small ways all these three organizations aspire to cause public disorder and destruction. They are certainly not concerned about their communities. If they were responsible for the Gujarat riots and if they are involved in the current ongoing violence in Orissa then they should certainly be banned. Since they are not full-fledged terrorist organizations they should be banned for a few years. The leaders should be arrested and they should be put on trial like any other criminal. Similar logic should be applied to Christian organizations if they are causing disorder with their activities – there might be a few and our mainstream media being what it is, it might never be covering them.
We need to keep in mind that whenever a citizen is attacked whether by terrorist organizations or by religious outfits it should be handled like a normal criminal case and no justification should be entertained (oh, we are perpetually being vicitimized, oh, they are making us Christians).
I haven’t had much time to follow the Amarnath shrine trust land controversy so I quickly went to Google news to check what’s going on. The shrine trust was allocated the forest land to build the premises, and I thought the Kashmiris were against that particular point; the forest land must be protected at all costs and no religious activity should interfere with that. How secular and progressive, I thought.
I discovered they give two hoots about the destruction of their forests; they are agitated over the Indian government’s "conspiracy" to settle Hindu population in Kashmir.
Fair enough; Raj Thakare wants Maharashtra for the Marathas and the Kasmiris want their land just for the Kashmiris (even the local dog population manifests similar proclivities). But do they remember that millions of pundits who had to become refugees in their own country were Kashmiris too? Why didn’t their heart bleed when their fellow Kashmiris had to leave the valley? They are outraged at the very thought of outsider Hindus coming to the valley and settling there, but they didn’t even bat an eyelid when millions of Hindus who had been living in the valley for 100s of years had to abandon their homes and move to other parts of India; talk of blatant double standards.
And this is when the trust premises is just being built to create a resting place for the pilgrims heading to the Amarnath cave. Height of religious intolerance. Move the same people (OK, well, Muslims I mean) to some other democracy and even slightest incidents infringe upon their fundamental human rights.
The Hindu reactionary parties like the VHP, the Bajrang Dal and to an extent the BJP too are not doing what they should be doing, and as always are doing something that they should avoid. I call them reactionary parties because they only react, they never really do something good for the country. Isn’t it simply insane to burn down and destroy local properties for whatever is happening in Kashmir? If the government is giving forest lands to various trusts, irrespective of what religion the trusts represent, shouldn’t their main worry be that the forest land of the country is being destroyed? Instead of asking for the same piece of land, shouldn’t they ask for a place that does not belong to the forest? Forget about Kashmiris Muslims, aren’t they too fighting against the interests of the country?
Solution? Instead of the piece of land that belongs to the forest, the trust should be allotted another piece, of course somewhere in Kashmir, and at a place that should be convenient to the pilgrims. If the Kashmiris still protest? Well, too bad, the government will have to deal with it just like Putin deals with such problems and shows a finger if the other countries protest. And if the Hindus still protest, demanding for the same piece of the forest land? They should be treated in the same manner.
Oh! This is wishful thinking. The buggers in the government rarely do something that is good for the country as a whole; they are more worried about vote bank politics.
The problem with religion is that it has two sides: a dark side from where major evils of the world originate, and a fair side, out of which lots of good happens. The problem is religion has fewer advantages and lots of disadvantages. Most cruelties in this world take place in the name of religion. Of course there is the race factor but it can also be somehow traced to religion. So what’s wrong if a state wants to teach its children that religion doesn’t matter and when they grow up they can choose whatever religion they feel like? I think I would like to give this choice to my daughter rather than calling her a Hindu or a Sikh.
People feel threatened by such endeavors because they will have to pull the shutters of their religion shops down. Lots of business and politics and black marketing happens in the name of religion; what will these people do if religion loses its control over the masses? From India’s perspective, from the BJP to the Congress to the communists and to the terrorists, every major organization and group uses religion to influence people. If people are taught that religion is not as important as it is made out to be, these people and organizations won’t be able to wield their power. The Congress won’t be able to divide Hindus and Muslims and the BJP won’t be able to instigate the Hindu masses to garner votes and the communists won’t be able to protect people from Hindu fundamentalism. Similarly the terrorists won’t get sympathy from Islamic countries.
But as people we should strive for a society where religion does not play a dominant role. Instead more stress should be given to developing fundamental human values that are universal everywhere. There should be education against the irrelevance of religion, caste, class segregation, racialism and prejudice. The society should be value-based and not religion-based. There should be no Hindus, no Christians, no Muslims and no Jews; there should only be good people and bad people.
Gandhiji uttered “Hai Ram” thrice before the three bullets pumped in by Nathuram Godse drained life out of him. The expression still adorns his samadhi at Raj Ghat. To highlight that the historical significance of the of the Ramsetu bridge is nothing but a mythical illusion, the Indian central government has told the Supreme Court that there is no proof of Lord Ram ever existing, or for that matter of all the sundry characters existing in the epic Ramayana. So has the government turned anti-Gandhi all of a sudden? If the Mahatma had the word Ram on his lips while he breathed his last breath, did he die uttering a false god?
With the nuclear deal controversy not showing signs of abating due to the churlishly intransigent Left (and the BJP) some say snap polls are imminent, and the Congress is surely preparing for that eventuality by playing the ultimate communal card. By denying one of the mightiest of Hindu gods it’s anybody’s guess whom the Congress is trying to please. Not Rawan, surely, because he becomes false too.
It’ll be stupid to believe that the center wants to demolish the Ramsetu bridge simply for economics because the scientists have said time and again that the environmental costs of the Sethusamudram project will be immeasurable, from inviting tsunamis to destroying the pre-historical coral reef (it’s a PDF). The central agenda of Congress (who is in power at the center right now) is to appease the minorities by showing that it doesn’t give two hoots to the majority’s (Hindus) sentiments. And of course there is lots of money to be made by the politicians, the builders and the contractors.
The response from the BJP and the VHP has been predictable. But sadly, this is the only kind of response that mostly works in our country these days. As we were discussing yesterday at home, in our country where more than 70% of population survives on Rs. 20 per day, who is bothered about the environment, but yes, Ram heats up the emotions. So if the bridge can be saved using the plank of religion, then be it.
What do I think about the existence of Ram? I’ll write about it in another post, in the meantime, let’s have a poll on Ram.
First things first, in India we desperately need a dharam shastra (a treatise that teaches us the path of righteousness) and I think Geeta is a good start. With so much corruption and moral degradation something is needed to teach us the dharma. It’s high time.
Krishna told him good should always fight evil and we should carry out our duties without harboring doubts.
It’s a worthy book but India being a secular country (I mean real secularism, not pseudo-secularism) it won’t be possible to declare it a national dharam shastra. Every major religion has its own dharam shastra in India.
Whenever you find yourself on the side of the majority, it’s time to pause and reflect. — Mark Twain
A sort of anti-Islam Facebook group faces closure due to large-scale threats of its users leaving the website if the group is not shut down. The description of the group IS offensive no doubt and even the forum topics are inflammatory, but why close the group if it is not instigating violence? Why curb the freedom of expression in this case? If Jesus can be shown ejaculating into a toilet seat and naked Sita can be shown straddling Lord Hanuman’s tail why a group called “Fuck Islam” cannot be tolerated? You can find millions of online groups venting hatred against all conceivable religions and it doesn’t make sense closing all of them.
Should Facebook give in to its users’ pressure? It shouldn’t. Tomorrow every community will demand the closure of another community and that would be the end of this great website. In short term it may seem prudent to remove the group and stop the other members from leaving but this act will permanently make a dent in the website’s popularity because people will think that no ideas are safe if they are communicated through Facebook. If the topics covered in the forum are so offensive, then I think they should be allowed to die their own death. In fact the protest has earned the group a mention in various magazines and newspapers, and blogs.
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