Democracy is a three legged stool consisting of Executive branch, Judiciary, and Legislature. The three branches are supposed to provide checks and balances for smooth functioning of the government. This approach failed in India. One of the main reasons is fifty years of communist rule in India. The executive (bureaucracy) and judiciary are filled with communists. And to maintain their power, the legislatures find it convenient to appease minority community. Secularism as enshrined in the constitution has taken new meaning. As long as Hindus and Hindu Dharma is at the receiving end, secularism is intact. But rules change when it is the minority community. Let us analyze this mockery of secular democratic country.
Judiciary: Judiciary¡¦s role is to safeguard constitution and dispense justice in a timely fashion. There are innumerous cases where judges played the role of an activist and a partisan when Hindus were blamed and got punished wrongly. Both the speed and action taken by courts and judges in the following two cases is laudable. „« Supreme Court showed lot of enthusiasms in best bakery case.„« A court sentenced Dara Singh within such a short time.
But the same judges and courts lose steam when they are asked to dispense justice in issues involving Hindus. Where is the speed and judicial activism in the cases of Kashmiri Pundits or Ayodhya temple!!
Hindu Schools: Education controls the future minds. In India this has been exploited to hilt to damage Hindu Dharma. Keonaard Elst has described this eloquently in his discussion on BJP vis a vis Hinduism:
¡§Article 30 of the Constitution, which lays down that the minorities, can set up government-sponsore denominational schools (implying the right to a communal bias in recruitment of teachers and students and a religion-centred curriculum). When the Constitutional Assembly voted this article, many delegates probably assumed that the extension of the same rights to the Hindu majority was self- understood; but in practice, this right is denied to the Hindus. This became hilariously clear in the 1980s, when the Ramakrishna Mission deemed it necessary to declare itself a non-Hindu minority (a self-definition challenged in court by its own members and struck down) in order to prevent the West Bengal government from nationalizing its schools.[1] Art.30 constitutes a very serious discrimination on grounds of religion, and is in conflict with the professed secular character of the Indian Republic.
In no democratic country would a majority community tolerate such discrimination, and it says a lot about the stranglehold which the secularist intelligentsia has on public discourse that this article hardly ever figures in debates on secularism and communalism. It also says a lot about the meekness of the Hindus in general and about the incompetence of the Hindutva movement in particular¡¨.
Hindu Temples: India is the only country where the majority community (HINDUS) does not has any control over their religious places. Unequal treatment of Hindu and non-Hindu places of worship is a hall mark of Indian secularism. Muslims have full control of their mosques, Christians have full control of their churches, but Hindus are systematically deprived of the control of their temples. Recently the authorities tried (unsuccessfully) to have the Shirdi Sai Baba temple in Hyderabad declared a Hind temple, because that would allow them to take it over and do what they have been doing everywhere to Hindu temples: siphon the income off to their own pockets or to other non-Hindu purposes. This is a major factor in the dire poverty which Hindu temple priests (whose wages have not been adjusted for decades) and their families suffer.
The state governments are non- trans parent, unaccountable and treat the temples and endowments as their fiefdoms. Sri Sri Ravi Shankar of the Art of Living has properly defined the issue as "The Government, which failed to manage the PSUs, is now eyeing the temples. This dual stand is unacceptable." One of the Udupi seer draws a different parallel. "When mosques and churches are enjoying total freedom, why does the Government need to interfere in the administration of temples?"
The state governments' control of Hindu temples and endowments, particularly in South India - that causes deep resentment amongst the majority community. When devotees make an offering in the temple, they innocently assumes that the donation if for the temple. Little do they know that the money is a line item in the state government¡¦s budget that is not only used to support the corrupt state government but also to support the activities of Christians and Muslims.
Case of Karnataka (shown in the table below) highlights this issue, though trusteeship by other South Indian states is equally harmful and flawed. The state control of Hindu temples in Karnataka, as has been practiced there, amounts to denial of religious freedom. In brazen disregard of the norms of trusteeship, the govt. in Karnataka has diverted revenues of temples to madrasas and churches, hampering cultural activities and forcing temples to brink of closure. Statement of Receipts and disbursements of revenues from Temples Govt. of Karnataka Statement of Allocation of Revenue for development purposes
This table shows the injustice done to Hindus by pseudo-secular
governments. The state of Karnataka is not an exception but a rule.
The same story is repeated in state after state.
Hindu Religious Leaders: On the holiest night in the Hindu calendar, Diwali, the night when good triumphs over evil, arrest the most visible, revered, and respectable Hindu religious leader in the country on a fabricated murder charges. Hindu leaders will be arrested even without justification. Non-Hindu leaders will not be arrested even when demanded by the courts on the grounds of creating a law-and-order situation. Surely requirements of law and justice, if any, could have been met by a more considerate and benign approach by the law enforcement agencies, keeping in view the very great reverence that the Kanchi Peetathipathi commands among the vast mass of Hindus of the country.
„« Arrest a Hindu sanyasini because she had raised the Indian flag. But the state and its instruments of power turn a blind eye when non- Hindus are involved, as shown by the following few examples:
„« In Kerala, Muslim League Minister Kunjalikutty, accused of what is probably statutory rape (sex with a minor girl), refuses to step down. A mob of Muslims attacks media people just because an interview with the girl was broadcast
„« In Hyderabad, some low-level maulana is arrested, and a Muslim mob riots and attacks the police station to try and release him
„« Imam Bukhari of Jama Masjid in Delhi has number of criminal charges including those of murder against him.
„« Today¡¦s Indian Union ministry has four ministers with first degree criminal charges (this number excludes those who have corruption charges).
„« Maharashtra recently elected some most notorious criminals as MLAs.
„« State (AP) government¡¦s refusal of help to the Gujarat police in the arrest of Moulana Naseeruddin, president of the Tehreek-e- Tahfuz-e-Shaire Isl-am, more than once before he was picked up last month. Naseeruddin was facing charges in the killing of former Gujarat Minister Haren Pandya.
The successive pseudo-secular and successive governments has used all the instruments available at its disposal to crush Hindus and Hindu Dharma.
What Can Be Done: The main issue is not about religious persecution but what can be done about it.
Let me share a story narrated by Swami Vivekanand (Rousing Call to Hindu Nation; pp 156-157). ¡§Once when I was in Varanasi, I was passing through a place where there was a large tank of water on one side and a high wall on the other. It was in the grounds where there were many monkeys. The monkeys of Varanasi are huge brutes and are sometimes surly. They now took it into their heads not to allow me to pass through their street, so they howled and shrieked and clutched at my feet as I passed. As they pressed closer, I began to run, but the faster I ran the faster came the monkeys and began to bite at me. It seemed impossible to escape, but just then I met a stranger who called out to me, ¡§Face the brutes.¡¨ I turned and faced the monkeys, and they fell back and finally fled. That is a lesson for all life ¡V face the terrible, face it boldly. Like the monkeys the hardships of life fall back when we cease to flee before them¡K¡K..¡¨.
By claiming that we can bear any wrong doing is nothing but weakness. Scriptures (Kural says), ¡§A man can be said to forbear only when he has the power to strike and strikes not; where he has not the power, what matters it whether he forbears or does not forbear.¡¨ Hiding behind explanation and justification will not solve anything. The Hindus must learn to face monkeys and act accordingly.
Everybody knows the need of the hour is someone like Bhagat Singh. The irony is that everyone wants Bhagat Singh to be born in their neighbor¡¦s home. Being a proud Hindu does not mean hatred for other religions. It only means that the onslaught and senseless attack on Hindus and Hinduism for more than thousand years must stop. Whenever there is a clash between a greater good and a smaller one, the interest of greater good prevails.
Tyajedekam Kulasyarthe
Gramasyarthe kulam tyajet
Gramam janapadasyarthe atmarthe priithveem tyajet
In the interest of the family, one individual may be given up. In the interest of the village, one family may be disregarded. In the interest of the nation, one village¡¦s interest may be disregarded. And for the sake of Atma the whole world may be given up.
The forces which are well known to be inimical to the concerns and legitimate interests of Hindus in general and their religious leadership in particular, could not, will not, and should not be allowed to succeed.
Dharmo Rakshati Rakshitah
Rakesh Bahadur
18 Nov. 2004
Tuesday, December 28, 2004
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment