|
Readers'
Forum
Global corporates
Dr Hilda Raja 26, Ramanathan
Street, Mahalingapuram Chennai-600 034
Francois Gautier's “Christ and the North-East” (NIE, 20-11-2000) was
a frank expose and should cause concern to all right-thinking Indians.
Three areas calls for introspection: 1. “Exclusivity has crept into
the purity of early Christianity.” This is a singular characteristic
of that religion. Right from childhood every Christian is made to
believe that she/he belongs to a religion which alone possess ‘the
only true god’—which automatically means that others possess demi-gods,
false gods or no gods. A run of this thinking activates them to ‘save’
others. It is difficult to erase this arrogation of a monopolistic
ownership of god. The concomitants of this—fundamentalism and intolerance.
2. “Christianity is dwindling in the West.” This augments the need
for the Church to target the Third World countries and India becomes
a soft target with its gullible people and political parties which
will go to any lengths, even compromise the country's integrity for
their own political gains. It is small wonder that in Arunachal Pradesh
from a mere 1710 in 1961 the number of Christians have swelled to
115,000 with 700 churches.
The minority status
has aided the churches to acquire enormous land. Neither the Marxists
nor the ‘secular forces’ are bothered about the fact that the Christian
churches lumped together becomes the biggest landowner in India—all
this for the love of Christ. Which country will allow this land-grab?
Why and how can a 2.32 per cent justify the ownership of such vast
extents of land? Its service wing is only a diversion to sanctify
the unaccountability and immunity to this acquisition. If the Hindu
temple and its lands come under Government control why should the
Church lands not be controlled and regulated? 3. When political parties
are agitated over the impact of globalisation they overlook the fact
that the churches are global corporates. Take the example of the Roman
Catholic Church with its headquarters at Rome: its enormous wealth
(second to the Lutheran Church) is invested in various profit-oriented
sectors including arms and ammunition. Its leader is not only a spiritual
head but also a political head of a state.
With its economic,
political and social powers the Roman Catholic Church becomes one
of the biggest transcontinental corporate wrapped with a sheen of
spirituality/religiosity. This to claim immunity and unaccountability.
Can anyone recognise Christ and his message within this power baggage?
Followers must try to emulate their leader. Christ had no place to
lay his head. His stand for justice was uncompromising and hence earned
his isolation and his death. Here political parties vie with one another
to ally with churches, abet its activities, gaze with awe at its wealth
and power. Can one identify any Christ-like characteristics in the
churches which only misuse and abuse his name and message for their
own power and glory, to extend its colonial ambitions in the Third
World? To be honest one needs to be outside the churches to realise
what Christ stood for and to experience his message of love and peace.
Crusade
against smoking
R.N. Lakhotia S-228,
Greater Kailash-II New Delhi-110 048
The imposition of tobacco taxes is no solution for curbing the menace
of smoking. What is required is a sustained campaign for educating
people for controlling the evils of smoking. Likewise, passive smokers
must be saved by actively banning smoking in public places.
Secular
communalism
Dr Umacharan Panigrahi
Station Road, Rayagada-765 001
As a secular citizen of India, I wholeheartedly join the group of
admirers of the Central Government's acting upon the ‘original’ idea
of declaring ceasefire during the month of Ramazan. At last this secular
Government has publicly admitted that the terrorists both foreign
and indigenous operating in Kashmir are only Muslim and therefore
need protection from the kafir Indian defence forces. It is strange
why the terrorists are also not termed “composite” like our so-called
‘culture’. At the same time I wonder at the blatant anti-criminal
act of Karnataka Government, who has promptly put the STF on Veerappan's
tail. Does not Veerappan too deserve similar Government consideration
during, say, Chaturmas and Dakshinayan just because he is a Hindu?
It is difficult to say whether the previous Governments also allowed
their terrorists to flourish through special concession as per their
religion. However, I request the present Government to declare ceasefire
against all terrorists and criminals in the country as per their religion
to prove themselves more secular than secularists. If some expendable
Hindus or security forces happen to lose their lives and honour in
the process they or their kin can be given monetary compensation.
After all what are Hindus for in secular Bharat, if not to be used
as cannon fodder for their singular sin of existing as heathens and
kafirs?
Princely
states' freedom
Ram Gopal A-2B/94-A,
MIG Flats, Pashchim Vihar New Delhi-110 063
A large section of Indian intelligentsia suffers from disinformation
about the option of the princely states at the time of Partition to
go independent, which is a myth. Had it been real, at least a few
of the 600 odd princely states would have got Independence. The reality
is that all of them had to merge either with India or with Pakistan.
Even this limited option had to be exercised with reference to the
contiguity of the individual state to India or Pakistan. The Nizam
of Hyderabad was prevented from joining Pakistan because Hyderabad
was not contiguous to Pakistan. The Nizam approached the United Nations
on this count, but failed. J&K had the unique distinction of being
contiguous to both India and Pakistan. Thus, it could exercise its
option either way. It chose India. Plebiscite was not a condition
of the Maharaja of Kashmir. It was introduced by the Indian Government
suo-moto. The cries of azadi arise only from the Kashmir Valley which
is about one-fifth or so of the whole of J&K. More than half of J&K’s
population lives in Jammu and Ladakh regions and majority of them
demand full integration with India.
Shiv
Sena on ceasefire
S.A. Narayan Nishigandha,
Manvel Pada, Virar (E)
 Everybody should welcome
the stand taken by Shiv Sena vis-a-vis the ceasefire in Kashmir. The
terrorists who are Islamic jihadis known only the language of the
gun. Whatever happened to Advani’s “pro-active” theory? It seems to
have been hijacked by the jihadis.
Matter
of convenience
K.S. Iyer BJP Central
Office 11, Ashoka Road, New Delhi-110 001
It is not surprising that the Jehad Council—an umbrella organisation
of 14 militant groups in Paksitan—should have rejected India's offer
of unilateral ceasefire in Jammu and Kashmir, during the month of
Ramazan. The so-called militants are not interested in undertaking
the religions fast during Ramazan. Probably, they want to fool their
co-religionists by claiming that they should be exempted from observing
the fast, since they have to fight a jehad.
Hindu-Muslim
‘unity’
Shalil Ghosh Plot 122,
Bang Bhavan, 1st Floor Road No. 5, Hindu Colony, Dadar (W) Mumbai-400
014
T. Mani Chowdhary in “Undoing a secular sin” (Organiser 3-12-2000),
asks—“In the last 100 years is there one movement when Muslims and
Hindus were involved in a common cause?” Yes, there was; but this
revolt was not given importance by motivated historians of the left
and secularist variety. This was the naval uprising by Royal Indian
Navy ratings in February 1946 in Mumbai when Hindu and Muslim ratings
on their own revolted against the raj and fought together. Mahatmaji
spoilt this unity and later Jinnah also joined him. Said the Mahatma:
“I do not approve of this unity at the barricade.” Khilafat movement
was also of a sham unity, glorified by Gandhiji's hagiographers who
gave his failure a different colour.
An
open letter to Pope
C. Parameswaran III/14
Pottore Post, Thrissur Distt Kerala-680 581
This is in response to the recent declaration by the Vatican's congregation
for the doctrine of the Faith, rejecting the equality of religions,
asserting the primacy of the Roman Catholic Church and declaring that
the followers of other religions are in a gravely deficient situation
in comparison to those who, in the Church have the fullness of the
means of salvation. I assert that the Christian religion has no primacy
over the religion of the Hindus and that the followers of the Hindu
religion are not in any deficient situation compared to those in the
Church in regard to means of salvation. I also assert that no missionary
of the Church has the right to approach me, a Hindu, in order to spread
the message of the Church that all religions are not equal, that the
Roman Catholic Church occupies the place of primacy among religions,
that compared to Christianity my religion is gravely deficient in
providing the means of salvation, that if I do not embrace Christianity,
I shall be damned, etc. According to the Constitution of my country
I have the right to follow my religion without any such interference
from the followers of another religion.
The right of the
Church is therefore severely limited because its right, if any, ends
where my right begins. The rights of everybody are curtailed to the
extent necessary in order to safeguard the rights of all. And what
is called the right of the Church to spread its message is not a right
bestowed by God, but a freedom, an indulgence, extended by the Constitution
of this great country and it reflects the innate goodness and tolerance
of its people. If the Church persists in its agenda to spread its
message based on such postulates as that the Christian religion rests
on a higher pedestal than the religion of the Hindus, etc, it would
only be teaching the Hindus the lesson that their religious tolerance
down the ages had been a serious fault.
|
|
|
