Secularly Communal - Charity Work Doesn't Need Religion

“These very high intellectual persons who wake up every morning...see what they can find to demolish, to undermine, or cast away.” – Winston Churchill. 

Somehow that quote reminds me of the National Advisory Council (NAC). Whenever members of the NAC meet I wonder what sets their agenda. The outcomes have been either more subsidies or proposals on more communal laws. The quote also reminds me of the workings of a divisive media. Much has been written about the Communal Violence Bill and of the ‘Secular’ Indian media. We will get to all of this a bit later. This post loosely connects issues and events.

Read the post ‘Govt. Shouldn’tCensor News, But NBA Will...’ There was this mosque at Jangpura in Delhi. A relatively posh locality in Delhi. This mosque, Noor Masjid, was demolished by the DDA under orders from the High Court.  The mosque was built on encroached DDA land and therefore the court order for demolition. This followed with rioting by muslims in protest. Some newspapers and websites reported the incidents but TV news channels apparently blacked out the whole incident. The blackout was supposedly done through an understanding reached at the National Broadcasters Association (NBA) and supposedly to prevent the violence or riots from spreading. Sounds alright!

Then, there was this case of a Bangalorepastor: Bangalore Mirror, June 17  “A city pastor has been accused by his own wife of being a paedophile and of misappropriating church funds. The charges against K Shantaraju, the 45-year-old pastor of the Bethel Church and Bethel Student Centre in Siddhartha Nagar, Jalahalli West, are being probed by the police after a complaint was filed by his wife Priyalatha at Gangammanagudi police station on Wednesday…" This news was once again blacked out by our secular TV channels. That might hurt secular sentiments. Sounds alright!

Another incident from AP on June 29: Minor girl allegedly raped, killed by pastor (The Hindu): "A minor girl was sexually assaulted and allegedly burnt  to death at Nadendla village in Chilakaluripet mandal. The shocking incident came to light on Wednesday when police began an enquiry into the death of the girl, who was admitted with severe burns in the area hospital on Tuesday night. The police took the accused, Ajay Babu, a pastor at the village into custody. The police said that Ajay had allegedly lured the girl and when she demanded that he marry her, he strangulated and then burnt her to death". Blacked out again by TV channels. I presume communal harmony was the motive. Sounds alright!

Most churches and Christian organisations in the modern world, and in India too, are developed under the concept of charity work. And, of course, to preach the word of God or Jesus Christ. There is nothing wrong in the preaching. But there are those who operate under the principle that the poor or downtrodden will not be uplifted or their diseases may not be healed unless they convert to Christianity. Do you really need religion for charity work? Almost all faiths have charitable work undertaken in the name of their religion but currently the practice of conversion is most prevalent in Christianity. Quite often that sounds like Amway’s get-rich-quick schemes. One can also point to the miracle cures of a Benny Hinn or the many Hindu babas who offer such cures.

So why does the media blow out of proportions crimes by Hindu babas and swamis and yet maintain an eerie silence on crimes by other religious groups? I am no social scientist but simple logic tells me that if Hindus are in majority in India most crimes will likely involve Hindus. Although even that logic is not really sound when you think that our movies have more minority characters as ‘bhais’ or that blacks are stereotyped as more criminal in the USA. But this isn’t about mere crimes. This is about why, if at all, do we need religion to undertake any charity work. There are unconfirmed reports that many missionary workers first asked victims to accept Christianity before being served after the Tsunamis in India. If at all India is really ‘secular’ in the sense that all religions are equal why should conversions not be banned in all the states. Is changing one’s religion a substitute for miserable policies of the government which have consistently failed to uplift the poor? Keeping people in poverty and backwardness is also a recipe for religious confrontation.

John McCain, the Senator who ran for President against Obama, is on record stating that the USA was founded as a Christian nation. Well, that’s how politicians utter untruths and absolute fallacies and that is as pseudo-secular as some Indian political parties are. A closer look at the video below (From Religulous) will explain what the founding fathers of the US really thought about religion and why the US Constitution does not have the word God:

Senator Mark Pryor who features in the video is also an evangelical Christian and there is something truthful he says: “You don’t have to pass an IQ test to be in the senate”. Isn’t that true for our own parliament?

If you go back to your school textbooks or go to a current school textbook you will not find any mention of the various castes and sub-castes of India. So who taught you all this stuff about Kurmis, Gujjars and so on? Certainly not your school! This education has come mostly from politicians and the media who continuously divide the nation on these lines. This motivates the ‘marketing’ effort of various groups for religious undertakings. And if you’re still unclear where castes and identities are concerned here’s something to help you:

Joshua Project (Enlarge pic for better education)

That’s a map of the Joshua Project. It’s a great guide on emerging markets for religious products. Here are some more interesting pages on the growing ambitions of Christian evangelists and some on the media twists:

India Today: Independent churches mushrooming across India attracting foreign funding. Rediff.com Varsha Bhosale - The Balkanisation of India. George W Bush made a statement to the effect that “God wants people to be free and that is part of my foreign policy”! That was in additiional justification of the Iraq war. Not surprisingly since Bush II, the faithful, came into office in 2000 there has been a massive increase in evangelical activities in the US and across the world. Tehelka ran a story "Reaping the harvest" on this phenomenon.  The Indian tribal and backward class market is a clear target as the Joshua Project indicates.

The RSS mouthpiece Organiser carries an article titled “Sonia compromising Indian security, Congress capitulating before foreign powers”. Obviously, the RSS has its own reasons for these articles. However, not every part of this article can be dismissed as religious bias. All of these are indicators that we do not need more religion related bills.

The NAC’s Communal Violence Bill is bound to pit community against community rather than bring about any justice. There is a strong need to ban conversions, carefully limit influence of foreign evangelicals and religious outfits meddling in India. We have enough religious outfits of our own that are capable of creating abundant chaos.

The government itself has an organisation called the ‘National Foundation for Communal Harmony’ (NFCH). Why not pass more bills FOR communal harmony and create more branches of this organisation across the states? The NAC itself must be disbanded. It is the singular failure of the Congress party in bringing about communal harmony. Far from harmony the Congress has consistently indulged in identity politics which has seen the birth of many regional political parties on the ideology of ‘victimhood’. I am no fan of Mayawati but I doubt she has caused as much damage in five years as the Congress has in 60 years in UP. Blaming the RSS, the BJP and others can only do so much.

The Ten Commandments is a much revered scripture or document. If that were the only document ever needed we would be fine. That document still doesn’t mention child rape or child abuse. We have come to discover these crimes without religion. We can be just as sure that we don’t need religion for any charity work. We don’t need communal violence bills, we need governments to completely get out of religion. We need government to get out of the Tirupatis and the Gurvayoors. There can be better mechanisms to control temples without direct government involvement. The media should be talking about these issues but they won’t. Perhaps the same evangelicals with global ambitions also fund much of our media. Indian governments must stop being secularly communal.

PS: Do vote on the communal violence poll at the top-right of this page.

A Shoe? All Over A Shoe?

“A personal security officer of Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati touched a new low when he bent down to wipe her dusty shoes with his handkerchief during her visit to the district”. That’s the Times Of India on February 8. Will our news channels be far behind? They had a ball, as did the opposition parties in UP. The Congress, BJP, SP and, of course, our friends in the media like Rajdeep Sardesai and the rest.

And it’s even funnier when you hear the media or a Congressman calling it ‘feudal’ or ‘sycophancy’. What does Mayawati think she is? And why the hell is she wearing shoes anyway? Why can’t she learn anything from that intellectual called Rahul Gandhi who’s so bright in every which way. Sometime in February last year during Rahul Gandhi’s visit to Mumbai in the midst of a Shivsena agitation,  a Congress minister carried his shoes. You see that way there is no chance your shoes can get muddy and no one needs to clean it. And no one can accuse you of sycophancy or feudalism.

It is highly unfair of that security guard to have cleaned Mayawati’s dirty shoes. Such shoes are reserved for the likes of P. Chidambaram. I wonder what PC did with the shoes thrown at him. Were they dirty and soiled? Wait, even former Pak president Musharraf is reported to have shoes hurled at him just yesterday.

And it all started with poor old George W with that Iraqi journalist throwing shoes at him. Sometime back a rule was imposed at a student meeting of Rahul Gandhi. ‘Nobody is to wear shoes to the meeting’. We have come to fear shoes so much! And our political tryst with shoes go a long way back.

Sometime in 1977, Nani Palkhivala had stooped to measure Lillian Carter’s shoes (President Jimmy Carter’s mother) presumably to buy her some from India. This came to be known as ‘Shoe-string diplomacy’ I guess. The BJP (then part of the Janata Party in 1977) criticising Mayawati may have forgotten how important a role shoes play in politics and diplomacy. Palkhivala then explained that touching shoes or feet of elders is a sign of respect in Indian culture.

As recently as December 2010 TRS chief K. Chandrashekhar Rao promised to wash Sonia Gandhi’s feet if she gives statehood to Telengana. Scared as she was, Sonia Gandhi has since decided to wear shoes all day long, never letting KCR anywhere near her feet. It’s altogether a different matter that she often has her foot in her mouth for protection as well. The media celebrates shoes like nothing else. After all, 'boot-licking' is part of their daily chores.

My collection of shoes for the media keeps growing!

I have a collection of shoes too. A big pile. And they are exclusively reserved and piled in front of a pic of the Indian mainstream media. I add a shoe every day. My prayers are simple, someday I hope some security guard will mend the media’s ‘soles’ !

India Today - Banana Polls

India Today (IT) has come out with another opinion poll: Mood of the Nation. This is the second of such polls, the first being around August 2010. Though the poll reflects a fall in the ratings of UPA-2 it also suggests if elections were held today the Congress (I) & Co. would be back in power. And that’s not all, IT once again reveals Rahul Gandhi is the top candidate for Prime Minister. Opinion polls are just that! Opinions! But when a magazine repeatedly makes such exercises a cover story it wants the poll to be counted as a referendum on various political issues and personalities.

I have yet to come across a single serious or critical analysis of Rahul Gandhi as PM by India Today. While frequently touting him as the next PM, based on Congress Gandhi lineage and therefore natural logic, the magazine finds no need at all to analyze the person or his suitability for the post. The greatest article they came up with on Rahul was ‘Who’d be a perfect Mrs. Rahul Gandhi’. That was on November 24, 2010 when the nation was in grips of all kinds of scams including the Radia tapes. The only other article of note was another one promoting Rahul as the PM by ex-editor Prabhu Chawla titled ‘Rahul Rising’. This was consequent to their August 2010 opinion poll. Keep touting the line and a gullible nation will fall for it!

In the December 2010 poll Manmohan Singh, Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi have all fallen in their ratings but Rahul still commands the lead for the PM post. Trailing him are Narendra Modi, Nitish Kumar, Mayawati by a long margin. And, of course, MMS and Sonia are trailing too, so is Advani. Now, why on earth would I ask someone if MMS, Sonia or Advani would make a good PM knowing well that these three people are not even in the race? Sonia declined the post in 2004 knowing well the legal complications, MMS might not even last this term and Advani would be a has-been by 2014. So thats the trick to opinion polls. Put up three real contenders, three meaningless choices and the answers become pretty obvious. It’s like asking what you will have for desert!  Icecream? Milk Shake? Roasted Papad? Or Karela juice? You see, the answer might be easy, that’s what such surveys and polls are meant to do. Then it’s easy for me to go to town saying Icecream or Milk Shake were the two most popular choices. That’s how banana polls work!

 

Take a look at their methodology. 12k voters surveyed in ‘stratified random sampling’! If you don’t know what that means, you can look it up anywhere and educate yourself. Now what exactly does that mean? Electoral politics in India encompass a wide variety of ‘stratified’ population. Hindus, Muslims, Dalits and other Castes etc. 

So what exactly does this stratified sampling mean? And this is from 19 states. Which are those states? Nobody knows. This is also supported by a rating of Chief Ministers. (See pic) 

How does one explain CMs like Sheila Dikshit, Karunanidhi, K. Rosiah and Ashok Chavan in the top 10? Two of them, Rosiah and Chavan, had exited by the time the polls were underway. 

And the corruption ridden head of Karnataka, B.S. Yeddyuriappa, is up there at no.13 too. In case you didn’t notice, the list makes up only 17 CMs. 

 Obviously, there was no time or relevance to rate the remaining 13 CMs. Thirteen out of 30 CMs is almost 50% and their states or performances aren’t relevant. Your guess is as good as mine! Most of those states would be those poor cousins of ours from the north-east, the one exception being Assam. There might be many reasons why governments neglect the north-east. Is there a reason for the media?

The CMs were probably measured on performance norms of some kind by respondents, real and perceived. So I find it amazing that the magazine finds people finding Rahul Gandhi fit for the PM job with no real or perceived performance measure and no governance experience either. Only one thing is clear, the media dearly wants to see this man as PM. So I’m running a poll too. Who could be a future PM? Vote on the poll on the right margin of this page.