Photo Courtesy: Twitter

Christians (including Protestants who are not addressed in the letter) are 0.87% of Delhi’s population. The Hindu supremacists project the letter as a huge problem even when this very tiny section of the population was addressed which hardly counts politically! However, by responding to an otherwise innocuous letter, the BJP leaders have made it a national issue reaching out to a much wider audience.

The Hindu supremacists have problematized the timing of the letter – just one year before the General Elections, as well as the observation of the Archbishop “turbulent political atmosphere which poses threat to the democratic principles enshrined in our Constitution and secular fabric of our nation”. The two most important persons after the PM Narendra Modi in the BJP and in the NDA Government responded to the letter. Rajnath Singh, Minister of Home Affairs said, “there was no discrimination against anyone”. The letter made no claim to the contrary. Amit Shah’s response was: “polarising people in the name of religion” was “not appropriate” (Mathew 2018). The letter remotely doesn’t seek to polarize in the name of religion. In fact it calls upon to pray for principles enshrined in the Constitution and preserve secular fabric of the nation. Both the leaders, and others from Hindu supremacists read something that is not there in the letter or want to deliberately draw conclusions to give it a political colour.

Elections are one year later and the letter will be forgotten by most people. Even if remembered, a very tiny section could hardly influence the outcome of elections. Besides, elections are almost always round the corner in some state or the other and such a letter could always be problematized whenever written.

Turbulent political atmosphere
The surge in hate spouted by the Hindu supremacists against non-Hindus is visible to all. To the Hindutva followers, the test of nationalism is neither in following Constitutional values nor in respecting rule of law nor in respecting democratic institutions like the legislature or judiciary. Their test of nationalism asserts supremacy of the privileged upper caste Hindu traditions and is proved only if one says “jai shri Ram”, “Bharat mata ki jai” and singing “Vande mataram” which, often they themselves cannot sing. Variants of these like “jai Hind” which is the tradition in security forces, or hoisting the national tricolour would not do. Expressing nationalism through constitutionally acceptable methods and plural traditions but which are not in conformity with the desires of Hindu supremacist becomes ground for them to indulge in violence and hate crimes. Violence against Muslims, Christians, Dalits and women are on rise. Social hostilities based on religion are on rise, particularly as the Hindu supremacists find an enabling environment where politically influential leaders and even ministers spout hatred against Muslims and Christians. Muslims are often advised to take permanent residency in Pakistan, an enemy state according to Hindu supremacists. Pakistan is projected to be patron state of Muslims in India. The BJP President Amit Shah publicly asserted while campaigning during Bihar Assembly elections – ‘Pakistan will celebrate if BJP loses elections in some innocuous Indian state’. Beef eaters (read: Muslims and Christians) are advised to emigrate to Pakistan (Anil Vij, Minister in Haryana).

Ministers in Central Govt. Sadhvi Niranjan Jyoti publicly stated that Hindus were progeny of Lord Ram (Ramzade) and the rest – Muslims, Christians, Jains, Sikhs, Buddhists, Parsis, atheists who do not accept Lord Ram to be their God are bastards (haramzade). The Sadhvi continues as minister and she was not even reprimanded. Maneka Gandhi, Union Minister said the profit from cow slaughter was financing terrorism. Sakshi Maharaj, BJP MP asserted that Madrasas religious schools run by Muslims were terrorist training centres. The person who asserted that Hindus should forcibly marry 100 Muslim women (and convert them to Hinduism) for every Hindu woman who chooses to marry a Muslim man (and gets converted to Islam), has been made chief minister of UP (FP Staff 2014).

Attacks on Churches and prayer meetings of Christians have dramatically increased. Instead of arresting the criminals, they are sought to be protected by categorising the attacker/s as mentally disturbed person/s. Mob lynching of Muslims and dalits on accusations consuming beef or slaughtering cows have grown manifold in the last four years.

Table – 1: Incidents of mob lynching on accusation of cow slaughter:
 

Source: www.indiaspend.com & www.news18.com

Mohd. Afrajul was hacked to death and then burnt alive in Rajsamand (Rajasthan) by Shambhulal Raigar, a follower of Hindu supremacist ideology. He videographed the incident and uploaded for popularity. Junaid Khan and Mohammed Akhlaq were lynched to death. Recently a dalit youth Mukesh Vaniya was beaten to death in Rajkot for refusing to clean up a factory premise belonging to an upper caste. Those who lynched Pehlu Khan to death in Rajasthan have been discharged and the accused freed. Survivors of mob lynchings have on the contrary been charged.

Communal conflicts have escalated. Communal violence has increased in Bihar since Nitish Kumar aligned with the BJP to form the state government. Massive Ram Navmi processions were taken out in March 2018 in several towns through new sensitive routes passing through minority areas in order to provoke and resulting in communal violence. In Kasganj Muslims celebrating Republic Day were asked to halt their Indian flag hoisting to make way for a bike rally of Hindu supremacist and on requesting them to wait a little, they sparked off communal riot. In WB there were riots during Muharram and Ram Navmi. Religious festivals are becoming tense moments for communities.

Table – 2: Number of communal incidents in the years 2014-2017:

Source: Ministry of Home Affairs’ reply in Parliament

Crime against women are on increase. Rape in Kathua was motivated by religious hostility and the Hindu Ekta Manch organized massive demonstrations in defence of the accused. BJP MLA in UP has been arrested for raping a child and later beating her father to death along with other accomplice. We could fill pages with sordid cases. If these are not turbulent times, what else could be? The PM of the country has by and large remained silent on all these issues.

Pew Research Centre, an independent non-partisan polling and research organisation, has been publishing its annual Global Restrictions on Religion Report since 2009. In their research, India ranked fourth in the world in 2015 – after Syria, Nigeria and Iraq – as having the highest social hostilities involving religion. India’s ranking worsened sharply since 2014. The report composes of two indices – the Government Restrictions Index and the Social Hostilities Index. While the former measures government restrictions on the free practice of religion, the latter looks at hostilities between groups around the issue of religion. The Social Hostilities Index looks at 13 indicators including crimes motivated by religious hatred, mob violence related to religion, communal violence, religion-related terrorist groups, using force to prevent religious groups from operating, the harassment of women for ‘violating’ religious dress codes and violence over conversion or proselytising. India ranked ‘very high’ on the index with an index value of 8.7 out of 10, 10 being the worst. Syria ranked at 9.2, Nigeria at 9.1 and Iraq at 8.9

Real reason
Hindu supremacist leaders problematize the Archbishop’s letter as polarizing and influencing voters. Such a conclusion would be a very remote possibility, and as pointed out above, would not influence the outcome. However, appeal by varied Hindu God men is far more direct and materially influences electoral outcomes. To give just a few examples, Haryana Chief Minister and several ministers visited controversial God man Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh’s Ashram and he is known to have appealed to his followers to vote for the BJP. The Ashram was beneficiary of Haryana Govt. funds. Another controversial God man Asaram was visited by the then Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi, BJP leader Atal Bihari Vajpayee and other leaders and his Ashram in turn has been beneficiary of Govt. largesse in the form of land and ignoring illegal activities going on within the Ashram. BJP leaders visit the Ashram for votes of course.

Baba Ramdev’s Patanjali empire rapidly expanded after the BJP came to power. Patanjali’s Acharya Balkrishna become the 8th richest person in the country after 173 per cent rise in his wealth to Rs 70,000 crore. Patanjali has secured a second place in Indian FMCG market share in under 5 years, according to Hurun India Rich List 2017 (BT Online 2017). The rapid growth is because Baba Ramdev openly associated with the BJP and was in turn given Govt. land at highly concessional rates in several states ruled by the BJP. Haryana Govt. invited Digamber Jain monk – Tarun Sagar to address the State Legislative Assemble for 40 minutes. In his address, he asserted that relations between religion and politics should like those between husband and wife. Just as wife needs to serve the husband and husband needs to protect wife, politics should serve religion. In his words, “Rajniti par dharam ka ankush zaroori hai. Dharam pati hai, rajneeti patni. Har pati ki yeh duty hoti hai apni patni ko samrakshan de. Har patni ka dharam hota hai ki woh pati ke anushasan ko sweekar kare. Agar rajneeti par dharam ka ankush na ho toh woh magan-mast haathi ki tarah… ho jaati hai.” The Monk’s assertion is absolutely against both – the Constitutional principle of equality of genders and secularism.

When other parties approach Imam Bukhari for Muslim votes, then that becomes anti-secular and even anti-national (although election results do not bear out that Muslims vote according to the diktats of Imam Bukhari or for that matter any other Muslim religious leaders. In the 2014 General Elections, Rajnath Singh hobnobbed with Shia religious leaders. It is difficult to believe that during election time such a visit by the BJP leader was only a courtesy call without any electoral and political motive.

The BJP is not worried that innocuous Archbishop’s letter will contribute in any way towards losing even a few votes. Its real objective in problematizing the letter is that it wants to create a fear among the majority community about (non-existing) unity within the minority community. They scare the majority community that unity within minorities would lead to assertion of ‘their’ culture and dilution of the Hindu culture or ‘Hinduness’ of the nation. Minorities would struggle for secularism and space for their culture which is perfectly in accordance with our Constitutional principles but against the political ideology of Hindutva. It is the secularism and loyalty of the minorities to the principles enshrined in the Constitution that worries the Hindu supremacist and the BJP. The BJP leaders have always ridiculed secularism as sickularism. BJP has problematized Archbishop’s letter mainly because being from the minority community he has dared to speak up for the Constitutional principles and secular fabric of our nation.

The revered ideologue of Hindutva – M S Golwalkar – wanted that minorities should dream of nothing but the glory of Hindu (read upper caste) nation and Hindu upper caste traditions and symbols. Hindu supremacists’ objective is to relegate the minorities to the status of second class citizens. Bharatkumar Raut, former Rajya Sabha member of Shiv Sena – a party that subscribes to Hindutva ideology – even wrote an article demanding that the Muslims be disenfranchised – a demand which is punishable offence under section 153B of the IPC.

It is the idea of equality of all citizens that scares the BJP though it pays lip service to sabka saath sabka vikaas (with everyone and development of everyone). The lip service, even in its sincere implementation would actually negate democratic principles enshrined in our Constitution. It only asserts that if infrastructure of an area is developed, all communities would benefit ‘equally’. However, that is not true. If a road passes through a village the fellows having vehicles would benefit more than others in absence of affirmative action; and which village gets the road itself is a political decision and may be based on which community or caste forms the majority in the village.

What kind of new India do we want to build – One where lynch mobs undermine rule of law have the freedom to do so because they belong to majority religion and those who advocate for democratic principles enshrined in our Constitution and the secular fabric of our nation are questioned because they belong to minorities?

The post Arch Bishop’s letter: Storm in tea cup appeared first on SabrangIndia.

On 22 May, the brutal gunning down of anti-Sterlite protestors by the Tamil Nadu police in Thoothukudi is a blatant example of a repressive State machinery. More than eleven people were killed and many more injured, in an authentic people’s movement with legitimate demands. The powers that rule the country are clearly identified with the corporate mafias who care two hoots about the rights of the poor or environmental safeguards.

In the aftermath of the results of the Assembly elections in Karnataka on 15 May, the country witnessed the unprecedented act of a Governor throwing all Constitutional propriety to the wind. Unethically, he swore in someone to be CM and provided  a ‘carte blanche’ to his political party to buy up MLAs from parties which had the requisite numbers to form the Government; fortunately the Supreme Court stepped in and ensured that the ‘pretenders’ in this case were not given the throne. Their game plan did not work and the legitimate victors were given the reins of power earlier this week.

‘Demonetization’ has been a major heist on the country, favouring the rich and the ruling political dispensation. There is enough of empirical data to show how the poor and the middle-class of the country have been affected. Millions of Indians today try just-to-survive without access to the basic amenities of life. They have to scrounge to eke out a living. The poor become poorer every day. It is not surprising that the Oxfam Report ‘Reward Work, Not Wealth’ released recently during the World Economic Forum held in Davos stated, “The richest 1% in India cornered 73% of the wealth generated in the country last year, presenting a worrying picture of rising income inequality”. Government policies are designed to be pro-rich, a group, which will certainly be helpful to the ruling political class, when they have to come out more aggressively in the implementation of their agenda. Fuel prices have skyrocketed to an all-time-high, with eleven hikes in as many days.
 
Suicide by farmers continue in alarming numbers all over the country. ‘Firstpost’(24 May 2018)reports, “in Uttar Pradesh’s Baghpat district, Rahul, a 32-year-old sugarcane farmer, killed himself because he could not afford to treat his younger sister who was diagnosed with cancer and the doctor had suggested a surgery. The local sugar mill owed the household about Rs 3 lakh, which was not paid at a time when the family needed it the most. Rahul’s suicide was the trigger that compounded the fury and anger of sugarcane farmers from across the state. The farmers united under the banner of ‘Indian Farmer Union’ and held protests at various places”. A recent report from ‘Crisil’ the country’s leading rating agency, shows that today the rural wage growth has reached an all-time low of 0.2% ( from 8.4%) under the  UPA and that the farmers now do not even get a support price!

In another recently released study by the World Health Organisation (WHO) fourteen of the world’s most-polluted twenty cities, are in India; ironically many of them happen to be in Uttar Pradesh including Varanasi city. Healthcare is still beyond the reach of the poor Indian. In an Adani-run Hospital in Bhuj, Gujarat 111(out of 777) newborn babies died in a five-month period ending 20 May- a whopping 14%! In global indicators on several important parameters, like freedom of religion/belief, human rights, freedom expression – India’s rankings have touched all-time lows.

 A fly-over collapses in Varanasi and several ordinary citizens are killed! Human rights defenders like Teesta Setalvad and Javed Anand, intellectuals and others who take a stand,  have false cases foisted on them, they are hounded, harassed and some even killed. On 21 May, a poor Dalit in Gujarat was beaten to death and his wife molested. Women and children are consistently targeted if one goes by the number of rapes that have been come to light very recently. The poor and the marginalized, the Dalits and the tribals, the minorities and other vulnerable, are on the receiving end of tyrannical rulers.

Cobrapost in an ‘Operation 136’ sting showed the country how some of the top media houses agreed to run a pro-Hindutva campaign in the run up to the 2019 General Elections. The agenda, in exchange for money (‘black’ of course!) was to denigrate the opposition, highlight all positive stories on the ruling party and to mainstream Hindutva. A clear and strong “yes” from some of the biggest media people in the country to  Hindutva, black money and paid news. On the other hand, any journalist who takes an objective stand and for truth and justice is not only intimidated but some brutally murdered!

There is indeed so much happening (warranting 24×7 headlines) in the country all the time, but tragically a good section of our paid and so-called mainstream; media hardly highlight these grim realities. Some of the senior Supreme Court Justices reminded us recently –that what is at stake is the Constitution, the secular fabric, the future of our country! There is no one ranting and raving on these critical issues on the channels saying, “The nation wants to know”; there is no one demanding from the Prime Minister why he has maintained total silence on the police killings in Thoothukudi ?Why the ‘acche din’ after four years is only a big bluff? Why corruption, criminalization and communalism are the flagships of the country today? These and several more burning questions which affect the soul of the nation and which demand honest, truthful answers!

Instead, what gets prime time news, with the some anchors frothing and fuming is an innocuous circular letter from Archbishop Anil Couto, of the Archdiocese of Delhi written to the Catholics of his Archdiocese requesting for prayers until the General Elections of 2019. The letter dated 8 May, is a call for prayer beginning on “May 13, 2018 which marks the Anniversary of the Apparition of the Blessed Mother at Fatima, consecrating ourselves and our nation to the Immaculate Heart”.

 An objective analysis of Archbishop Anil’s letter, draw the following conclusions:

• As an Indian citizen, the Archbishop has every right to voice his opinions/views
• As the Archbishop of Delhi, it is his duty to be a Pastor and instruct the Catholics under his care both on spiritual and temporal matters
• It is an age-old practice for Bishops all over the world to send out Circular or Pastoral Letters before any major event (including elections) which could affect their people in any way!
• The letter clearly does NOT take sides; does not name any political party ; does not tell people whom to vote for
• The letter is addressed to a particular group of people ( that is Catholics of Delhi) it is directional in nature; a request and certainly not mandatory
• The letter is a call to prayer!

 
So then, what is the hullabaloo about? A letter of this nature, to a tiny fraction of a miniscule minority in the country, is perhaps not going to determine the outcome of any elections! (but Christians like any other person of faith do believe that PRAYER WORKS!).  Why is the BJP/RSS combine, with some of their media henchmen, on the ‘warpath’ on a letter, which is asking for prayers? Unless of course. their response is an admission of guilt and fear that, they stand woefully exposed! They are also overly –cautious of what ‘western nations’ may think; after all, several of their kind live in those countries and continue to have their children educated in them. Then there is their ‘standard’ reason: anyone who challenges our agenda and us is not ‘patriotic’!
 
Archbishop Anil begins his letter with the words “We are witnessing a turbulent political atmosphere which poses a threat to the democratic principles enshrined in our Constitution and the secular fabric of our nation.” There could not be perhaps a better opening statement, so down-to-earth, so contextual- which sets the tone of why one needs to pray and fast. Can one deny the fact that what we witness in India is not ‘a turbulent political atmosphere’? When a ‘few’   decide what one should eat and wear; see and write; or whom to worship; when the very core of the country’s secular and pluralistic fabric stands to be destroyed; when all that is sacred in the Constitution is being eroded – how can one ever abstain from making such a statement? It is a sin not to do so.
 
Some of the media fascists in our country would love to defocus from the current realities, which plague our country by providing undue attention to a letter like this. However, what takes the cake is that even some fence-sitting Catholics (who love to run with the hare and hunt with the hound provided they are in good books with the ‘powers that matter’) have also demanded that Archbishop Anil substantiates his statement with documentation/ facts. Sounds like a sick joke or perhaps these are NOT aware of what is happening in the country today. One self-appointed ‘Catholic Leader’ from Gujarat, (who in the past desperately tried to get into the ‘good books’ of Modi and the BJP there), takes umbrage at the letter. Others fear that it may have repercussions on the Christians (a BJP person who no longer finds himself ‘in the news’ wants India to ‘break ties’ with the Vatican!).Pro-BJP Christians have started writing ‘open letters’ (they certainly have a right to do so!) in a poor attempt to justify the unjustifiable!
 
The rest of the letter is an invitation not only to pray but also to fast every Friday of the week and “that we organize an hour of Eucharistic Adoration every Friday at a convenient time in all our parishes, religious houses and institutions, specifically praying for our nation.”
 
There is a beautiful prayer attached to the letter, which is recommended to be said during the adoration. The prayer resonates with the Upanishads (from darkness lead me to light), with Tagore’s ‘Gitanjali (into that heaven of freedom), with our national motto ‘Truth Triumphs’, with the Prophets of the Old Testament, with Jesus’ stand on what is wrong in society and above all, with the teachings of Pope Francis, including his insistence that ‘media must be bearers of the truth’. The prayer above all highlights the guiding principles enshrined in our Constitution: Justice Liberty Equality and Fraternity. (This prayer, with the necessary adaptation should be translated into all Indian languages and could be prayed by all women and men of goodwill across the country in the run up to the elections of 2019).
 
The life of Jesus: his person, message and mission are without ambiguity! Jesus is no ‘political’ messiah; he is the Saviour who came down to earth to prepare his people for eternal life. Jesus however showed to people that the ‘Kingdom of God’ is in the here and now! He takes sides with the poor and marginalized, with the ostracized and the gentiles. His vision and mission are there for all to embrace. However, he is not afraid to take a stand against the Herods and Pilates, the scribes and Pharisees of his time- they represented an unjust system and all that was wrong in society. Jesus ultimately had to pay the supreme sacrifice. The Prophets before him did the same and so did countless martyrs after him. Catholic Social Teaching, with the May 1891 Encyclical ‘Rerum Novarum’ has been consistent on being a voice for the voiceless; in speaking truth to power. Vatican II highlights several of these dimensions. St Pope John XXIII in his 1963 Encyclical ‘Pacem in Terris’ highlights four non-negotiables for Peace: Truth, Justice, Charity and Liberty and calls for their internalization in the Church and in the world.
 
Over the years, the Church has taken visible and vocal stands against Communism. Some years ago, the Bishops of Kerala were all out on the streets when there was a threat to nationalize education in the state!  It is no state secret of the pivotal role St Pope John Paul II played in the dismantling of communism in Eastern Europe. Pope Francis has been consistent with his teachings. He has challenged Bishops and Priests to defend the poor, the outcasts and the oppressed; he has spoken bluntly and directly to oppressive regimes, which do not respect the dignity and the rights of every human.
 
Some of the responses to Archbishop Anil’s letter sadly show that there are ‘fissures’ in the Catholic Church in India. Some of his fellow-bishops seem to disagree with him; or distance themselves from the letter or just say, “the timing is not right” (when is the right time to speak the TRUTH?). It was a similar scenario last year when Archbishop Thomas Macwan wrote an internal letter asking for prayers prior to the Gujarat assembly elections. The message that comes from those who express their discomfort with such a letter, is loud and clear: they are more interested in protecting their selfish, vested  and material interests rather than standing up for the person and message of Jesus which radiates Truth, Compassion Justice, Equality and Liberty for all . The Bishops of India would be sending out a powerful message of unity, both to the Catholics and the entire nation, if they take ownership of the letter of Archbishop Anil and circulate it (with the necessary adaptations) in their respective Dioceses too.
 
Archbishop Oscar Romero was brutally gunned down by the brutal regime of his country El Salvador on 24 March 1980. The day before he was killed in his Sunday homily he called out to his Government saying, “In the name of God, and in the name of his suffering people; those who have suffered so much and whose laments cry out to heaven with greater intensity each day, I implore you, I beg you, I order you in the name of God: stop the repression immediately!” Later this year he will be canonized a saint. He was truly a prophet, a martyr for justice; he was not afraid of the power and might of his Government! He was ready to lay down his life for his people! All of us can learn much from him and even try to imitate him in some ways!
 
The Church in India desperately needs prophets today, endowed with the vision and mission of Jesus, who get out of their comfort zones and are not afraid to speak truth to power! Every disciple of Jesus is not only invited but also challenged to do so! Do we have the faith and courage to respond to that challenge?
 
*(Fr Cedric Prakash SJ is a human rights activist. Contact: cedricprakash@gmail.com )
 
 

The post The Church in India desperately needs prophets today appeared first on SabrangIndia.