It is difficult, in the course of a single article, to make a comprehensive charge-sheet against the ruling dispensation. However, the elevation of Smt Pratibha Patil as the country'sfirst woman President must rank among the most blatant assaults upon India 'scivilisational ethos. It would be demeaning the office of President to reiterate the unseemly charges levelled against Smt Patil in the run-up to her election; what concerns us here is her record as an instrument of the UPA'santi-Hindu agenda.
Just recently, Smt Patil reiterated that she will not be a rubber stamp President, which is fine, since the President is supposed to be a moral and guiding spirit to the elected government of the day. The Constitution makers never envisaged a rubber stamp. Nor did they envisage a Political President, which is what Smt Patil has said she will be, in sharp contrast to the People'sPresident who has just demitted office.
This is an especially odd statement as it comes from a person who has been in public life for decades and should know that the Presidency is a constitutional post that should be kept free of controversy. This creates suspicions that Smt Patil will treat the Presidency as an extension of her political career in the Congress party; it is also a tacit admission that she treated her last tenure in the Rajasthan Raj Bhavan in much the same way.
UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi has a long record of disdain for the country and its laws, from the time she entered the country as daughter-in-law of the then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi. The Shah Commission put some of her cavalier actions on record. Her record became progressively worse as she ascended the political pole, first as wife of Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi, and now as Congress president and UPA chairperson. Apart from the public humiliation of the entire nation in the Quattrocchi scandal (enabling him to siphon off millions of Bofors kickback money in London and ensuring him access to classified government information so he could escape deportation to India from Argentina), India'snuclear security has been compromised in the one-sided agreement with America, at the insistence of Smt Gandhi. She is on record saying the deal means a lot to her; only she has not told us why.
One critical issue to which Smt Gandhi is seriously committed is conversion to Christianity. Though this is a well guarded secret in India, the late King Birendra of Nepal was known to have complained privately that during an official visit to his country as wife of Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi, Smt Sonia Gandhi berated him for the arrest of missionaries engaged in conversions and demanded their release. It is no secret that under her domination, the present UPA regime has been shamefully unhelpful towards Nepal in its current crisis, virtually throwing the country at the mercy of the Christian Maoist leadership of Prachanda-Bhattarai-Gajurel, and the US-dominated UN Political Mission.
Once this side of her agenda for India is known, the selection of Smt Pratibha Patil for President after she twice refused to sign the Rajasthan anti-conversion bill makes perfect sense. The move won public accolades from Pope Benedict XVI, and it cannot be ruled out that he put in a word with the Italian-born Roman Catholic president of the Congress party.
There can be no doubt that Smt Gandhi manipulated Smt Patil to show disrespect for India'sfoundational ethos and native culture. After being chosen as the UPA'spresidential nominee, Smt Patil referred the Rajasthan anti-conversion legislation to the President for an opinion. Both she and her Congress mentors knew that President A.P.J. Abdul Kalam would not have the time to seek legal opinion and take a decision on the legislation, and hence, this reference would come up before Smt Patil herself once she assumed office. And now, in the wake of her elevation as President, two more Congress party Governors, Shri Nawal Kishore Sharma of Gujarat and Shri Balram Jakhar of Madhya Pradesh, have returned anti-conversion legislations to their respective state governments. There is clearly a pattern here to undermine and change the very nature of this Hindu-majority nation. As Rajasthan Governor, Smt Patil was aware of the reprehensive activities of the Immanuel Mission in Kota. Shri Sharma would be aware of what is happening in Dangs, Gujarat, and Shri Jakhar would know that Madhya Pradesh is among the first states in India to pass anti-conversion laws to save tribals from the depredations of evangelists. Yet, all have put Smt Gandhi'snon-Indian, non-Hindu agenda above the nation. Other UPA constituents are equally oblivious of the danger to the country, being too busy nurturing minority constituencies for political returns.
It is pertinent that what the Gujarat Governor has returned are some important amendments to the Freedom of Religion Act 2003. This received the assent of the then Governor, Sundar Singh Bhandari. In 2006, the Gujarat Government amended the law to include Jains and Buddhists with the Hindu fold. The Governor'sclaim that the amendments do not conform to the Constitution is astounding. He has upheld the missionary position that Article 25, which guarantees all citizens the right to profess, practice and propagate a religion and freedom of conscience, means the right to convert another to one'sfaith. This goes against the spirit of the Constitution, and will no doubt give a boost to muscular evangelisation.
The Governor has conveniently ignored the fact that the Gujarat Government delineated Jains and Buddhists as part of the Hindu community, Shias and Sunnis in the Islamic brotherhood, and Protestants and Catholics as the Christian community only to facilitate the inter-marriages that often take place amongst these groups, and at least for Muslims and Christians sometimes involve formal conversion to the other sect. By keeping the local administration out of such intra-community conversions, the government was merely trying to save ordinary citizens from undue intervention by the state.
Chief Minister Narendra Modi has done well to declare that with the Governor rejecting the amendments, he will now notify the old 2003 law. This is imperative given that Pope Benedict XVI'scontroversial 2006 speech at the University of Regensburg reveals his disdain for image-worshipping communities (dubbed idolaters); he considers them worthy only of evangelism.
It is significant that even the Union Home Ministry concedes that conversions by missionaries are a major cause of social unrest and communal disharmony in India. An agenda paper for the National Integration Council on 31 August 2005 highlighted the activities of Christian evangelists in Kota , Rajasthan and attempts to convert Hindus by Muslims in Dakshin Kannada, Karnataka, as instances of such discord.
Sadly, the new President, Smt Pratibha Patil, will now use the Presidential reference she forwarded to herself to undermine the nation'sfoundational ethos at a time when it is the only bulwark against the forces of mindless terrorism on one side, and reckless modernisation on the other. The issue of Smt Sonia Gandhi'sforeign origins has never been more pertinent.
(The writer is a senior journalist and can be contacted at sandhya176@sify.com)
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