It was 1982 flood time in Orissa. Entire Mahanadi delta was marooned with flood water. Many benevolent people and organisations along with government agencies were busy in arranging and distributing relief among the hapless. So also we students. We had been to some villages near Konark. We saw some people distributing Cross along with relief materials to the peasants. ?Is it secularism?? asked one of my friends to another having allegiance to a political party'sstudents wing. I ask this question to all secularists including those who adore the high constitutional offices in India. Is a natural calamity blessing in disguise? Does any gospel suggest harvesting soul in muddy waters? All sane people in this human civilisation will agree to my friend'sview that this is an aberration of faith.
A few days back, a (note ?a? of a bench of three judges as reported in newspapers) Supreme Court judge during a hearing on Kandhamal riots said, ?We are a secular country. We cannot allow persecution of minorities. Protect minorities or quit?. Fine, there is no dispute on this aspect. Secularism has only one meaning, is not it? Or do you not agree? Let us hope there is one meaning. Till date not a single conspirator and instigator of 1984 riots, in which thousands of ?minority? Sikhs were butchered in broad daylight under the very nose of our Supreme Court, is behind the bar. The person who had told ?when a big banyan tree fails, there bound to have shivering on the earth? went on becoming Prime Minister of this secular nation. Even a Commission was instituted under a seating senior judge of the apex court, who later elevated to CJI, to go into the details of circumstances leading to that heinous crime. The result everybody has seen.
Secularists have burnt thousands of candles protesting Orissa Police failure to nab rapists of Kandhamal nun. Rapists along with some innocents were caught and had to wait for months to be identified by nun who deferred to show up for months for reasons best known to her and her benefactors despite benign appeal from SC to cooperate; forget about the state government'sdesperation. What is the fault of those innocents languished behind the bar for such a long time? Is it justice under secularism? Once again I am saying and warning this kind of secularism cannot survive? So far not a single candle found burning in the hand of secularists and no stricture was issued to state government from Indian secular judiciary for its failure to arrest the assassins of Swami Laxmanananda Saraswati (84) who spent his entire life working for the socio-economic upliftment of Vanvasis and downtrodden and his four followers including one woman assassinated in one of the most sacred nights in the Hindu calendar. Mind the day chosen for this barbaric crime.
Does secularism mean persecution/slaying of majority? Visit the world map of religious demography and search where are Hindus located? If one adds together the geographical areas of three, note only three out of hundreds of nations on the earth, where Hindus are majority, it is only 2.41 per cent to total land area in the world. Their percentage to total world population is 13 per cent. Now see who is minority and who is getting persecuted? Have you seen the film Jodhaa Akbar directed and produced by distinguished secularists of India? See how brutally the Hindu rulers were slaughtered in their own land? The world talk about genocide of six million Jews but is silent about genocide of crores of Hindus over 1000 years by Abrahamic proselytizers and their land getting shrinking day-by-day unabated. There is all out assault on Hindus only. Throughout the history there is no instance when Hindus were assertive and snatched the land of others. Hinduism, the oldest one and based on dharma (righteousness), prohibits Shankaracharyas, the highest authority in Hinduism, to visit overseas unlike other religions. You can have your own interpretation of the pious objectives that propagate this.
You are talking about secularism when the whole world is communal. Where were you when Pope John Paul II, the head of world'slargest religion, visited India as head of a nation and propagated Christianity disregarding host nation'shumble protocol? Even he went up to the extent of instigating his followers to accomplish the unfinished agenda of evangelisation of India and Asia in Delhi. As per the Canadian Society of Muslims, in 1900 world Christian and Muslim population was 26.9 and 12.4 per cent respectively. It rose to 30 per cent and 16.5 per cent respectively by 1980. By 2000, Muslim population has risen to 19.2 per cent. Again this Society projects that by 2025 the Muslim population will be 25 per cent of the world'stotal population which may be in view of Muslim growth rate of 2.9 per cent per annum when world population is growing at the rate of 2.3 per cent on an average.
The Supreme Court issued stricture to Orissa government for failing to protect the minority in a district of the state where their number increased from 2 per cent in 1961 to 6 per cent in 1971 and 27 per cent in 2001. See the rate of growth and think what is what. A wise and unbiased mind can only see the reason. Not all. How many strictures have been issued to J&K Government for failing to protect the interest of minorities who are languishing in refugee camps far away from their native place in the last two decades and more? And how many head of states have questioned our humble secular Prime Minster on this issue like they had done in the wake of Kandhamal issue. Taslima Nasreen has no place in our secular set up. Is it because she wrote about the sufferings of Hindus? This nation'slast hope is judiciary. This institution should not follow the path of politicians, bureaucrats, journalists, secularists, etc. Learn from Jains, Parsees and Bahais if you have allergy with Hindus on how to cohabit in peace. Hope good counsel will prevail over all evils.
(The writer is a faculty teaching Soft Skills and Business Communications at Seemanta Engineering College, Jharpokharia, Mayurbhanj, Orissa.)
