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November      Last updated: Nov 20,  5:00 p.m.

Dangerous consequences of Papal visit

Shyam Khosla

THE Pope John Paul II has come and gone. He has left behind a trail of bitter controversy over his clarion call to the Bishops to launch a massive conversion campaign and his hope that the third Christian millennium would witness a great harvest of faith in this vast and vital continent--Asia--after conquering Europe, America and Africa in the first two millenniums. The Pope abused Indian hospitality and caused deep hurt to the Hindu psyche by his dubious direction to the evangelists to enlighten the darkness enveloping the non-Christians in this land of ancient civilization. The Pope will do well to look for darkness in the innermost corners of the Vatican in the light of an insider, Monsignor Marinneli's exposures in his book Gone with the wind in the Vatican.

The "sincere desire" expressed by the Pontiff to engage in a dialogue with followers of other religions is a facade. This was amply brought out by his observation that the "religious values they (other religions) teach await their fulfillment in Jesus Christ". In other words, the Church is not prepared to concede even an iota of spirituality in other faiths. They must seek fulfillment of their religious values in Jesus Christ. That is what the head of the Catholic Church means by a dialogue. This approach is repugnant to the Hindu way of thinking reflected in the maxim : Ekam Sadvipraha Bahudha Vadanti (Truth is one, wise men tell it in different ways). For the Pope, Truth is one and only the Christ tells it in the right way and all others must learn to reach the Truth through the Son of the God!

Jagadguru Shankaracharya Swami Madhvanand Saraswati of Prayag Math, who was amongst the handful Hindu religious leaders to welcome the Pope's visit, has expressed deep anguish over the Papal assertion. He has pointed out that victory of a particular faith would mean defeat of other religions that would lead to unrest and religious discord. Victory of the universal truth, the Jagatguru observed, was vital for peace and prevention of religious conflicts. That is obviously of no concern to the Pope, his posture as an apostle of peace and love notwithstanding.

Hindu leaders' worst apprehensions about the serious implication of the Pope's visit to New Delhi to preside over the Asian Bishops Synod have been proved more than correct. To give the devil its due, it must be stated that the Church had never cared to hide its agenda. It has only reaffirmed that its only aim is to convert, through service if possible, by foul means, if necessary. The Pontiff's assertion during his recent visit that conversion was a basic tenet of Christianity is a challenge to the Hindu society. The challenge must be accepted with resoluteness and determination and converted into an opportunity to meet the Church's onslaught.

The Guerrilla on the prowl

The Hindus must wake up to the stark reality that the "spiritual guerrilla" is on the prowl. Hindu saints and religious leaders as also the socio-religious organisations like the Ramakrishna Mission, the Arya Samaj and the Vishwa Hindu Parishad must come together to meet the Church's challenge and pool their resources to reach out to the deprived and under-privileged sections of the society, particularly the tribals, to ensure that they too share the fruits of development. These sections constitute the soft-belly of the Hindu society and must be helped and encouraged to retain their identities so that they can resist the allurements offered by missionaries funded by foreign agencies out to divide the Hindu society and dismember India.

VHP has repeatedly pointed out that missionaries' claim to serve the deprived sections is a facade under which they resort to allurements and frauds to convert the illiterate and poorest sections of the Hindu society. Why don't they try to convert the educated, well to do and enlightened sections of the Hindu society if they are so confident of the spiritual content of their religion? And more importantly, why the missionary goes nowhere near a Muslim ghetto? Is it because of the severe fear of the mullah? Is it not an instigation to others to be as severe in their response as the mullah is?

The Pope insists that freedom of religion is a basic human right and that this cannot and must not be curtailed. There is no dispute with this principle as the right to choose one's religion vests with the individual and it is enshrined in our Constitution and is one of the basic tenets of our way of life. However, this principle cannot be allowed to infuse bad blood into public discourse by denying the same right to the victims of proselytism. The Supreme Court while rejecting the contentions of a priest, Stainslaus, that he had a fundamental right to convert others has held that Article 25(1) guarantees freedom of expression to every citizen and not merely to followers of any particular religion, and that, in turn, postulates that there is no fundamental right to convert other persons to one's own religion, as distinguished from his effort to transmit or spread the tenets of his religion, that would impinge on the freedom of conscience guaranteed to all the citizens of the country.

The conspirator

The pontiff did not add to his dignity by talking about great principles even while failing to instruct his army of missionaries to abide by the laws of the countries in which they operate. Freedom of Religion Acts are in palce in Orissa and Madhya Pradesh that entail upon those converting others to their religion to inform the district authorities in advance about thier intentions. Missionaries are violating this law with impunity for years. The respective State Governments are also guilty of not enforcing the law but more pertinent issue at this point of time is the role and attitude of the Pope who has turned a blind eye to this glaring violation of law by his followers. His talk about freedom of religion as a basic human right does not carry conviction. Have non-Christians have no basic human rights?

It would be too simplistic to expect Pope John Paul II to be straightforward. He is not only the head of the Catholic Church but also a conspirator par excellence. (Sorry, Your Holiness for being so blunt). I am one of those who had had the opportunity to go through the Pope's biography by Carl Bernstein and Marco Politi and vividly remember that within years of becoming the head of the Catholic Church, the first Polish to become a Pope conspired with William Casey, the then Director of infamous CIA, and US President Ronald Reagan to bring about the collapse of the Polish state. His biographers are no critics of the Pope. They are his ardent admirers and gave detailed account of the role played by him in ensuring that a Catholic becomes the head of the State in his homeland.

It is, therefore, not surprising that concerned Indians are apprehensive about the dangerous consequences of the Papal visit aimed at giving a fillip to conversions in the sensitive parts of the country. The backlash is there for everyone to see. The VHP has demanded a ban on conversion. The NDA Government, that is going out of its way to secure certificates of "secularism" even from those who are communal to the core and make no bones about it, is unlikely to concede the Parishad's demand. The least the Governments at the Centre and in states should do is to enact "Freedom of Religion Acts" on the lines of the Orissa Act to regulate conversions. Such laws will go a long way in preventing fraudulent conversions and enable the administration to keep a watch on foreign missionaries involved in anti-national activities.