Pseudo-Secularism

Hindu dharma is implicitly at odds with monotheistic intolerance. What is happening in India is a new historical awakening... Indian intellectuals, who want to be secure in their liberal beliefs, may not understand what is going on. But every other Indian knows precisely what is happening: deep down he knows that a larger response is emerging even if at times this response appears in his eyes to be threatening.

Tuesday, August 12, 2008

A new Jammu & Kashmir in Andhra Pradesh

Tuesday, 12 August, 2008 , 03:36 PM
By: V SUNDARAM

The glue that holds all relationships together -- including the relationship between the leader and the led is trust, and that trust is based on integrity. A cruel death blow has recently been given to religious and communal harmony in Andhra State by the known anti--Hindu Government of Andhra Pradesh.

Dr Samuel Rajasekhara Reddy, the Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh, has decided to create a separate department for Christians on the lines of Minorities Welfare Department. The Department will be headed by a Principal Secretary and will look after all issues related to Christians. Further, he recently held a meeting on issues of Christian minorities with senior officials and decided to help the Christians on their visit to their holy land. In Bethlehem, Dr Reddy said 'the issue was pending for a long time. Now, Christians can file applications online and preference will be given to white card holders. They will be allowed to go for the visit in batches and all assistance like Haj pilgrimage will be given. The first batch would be leaving shortly'.

The Chief Minister also decided has to constitute a separate finance corporation for Christians. At a recent meeting it has been decided to arrange mass marriages for Christian and Muslim minorities. Poor couples will be paid Rs 15,000 towards marriage expenses. Thus the government of Andhra Pradesh will be running a matrimonial bureau for the Christians in that State.

Ever since the UPA government under the dynastic stranglehold of Sonia Gandhi came to power in New Delhi in May 2004, it has been following a calculated and damnable policy of debasement of peace--loving Hindus which I have often described times without number as 'Christianity--coveting, Islam--embracing and Hindu--hating' in stance, posture, ideology, philosophy, programme and action.

I am convinced that Hinduism and Hindus in Andhra Pradesh are under siege today —— they are besieged by the organised Christianity--Caressing, Islam--Embracing and Hindu--Hating might of the Sonia--Congress government in that State. The Andhra--Pradesh Government is all out to belittle the Hindus, to insult them, to degrade them, to marginalise them and finally to decimate and destroy them by starting with the process of making them feel as unwanted III class citizens.

While announcing the above decisions of the government, Mohd Ali Shabbir, the Minister for Minorities Welfare, stated that henceforth the funds allocated to the Ministry would be allocated to the five Minority groups according to their population. This means Rs 127 crore allocated in the present budget to the Minorities would be released in proportion to the population of the Minorities in the State. The Minister has quoted the 2001 Census to give the figures relating to the Muslims: 69.88 lakhs; Christians: 12 lakhs, Sikhs: 31,000 and others: 31,000 (Buddhists and Parsis). He also said that the first batch of Christian pilgrims to the Holy Land would be sent with Government subsidy in the month of August. Thus the Government of Andhra Pradesh would be functioning as the Integrated, Consolidated, Co--ordinated Arch--Church for all the Christians (belonging to all denominations, including all shades of Catholicism and Protestantism!)

The Global Council of Indian Christians (GCIC) has already taken exception to the Christian population figures quoted by the Minister for Minorities in Andhra Pradesh referred to above. According to this Council, though according to the 2001 Census, the Christian population is only 1.55 per cent of the State population, now it has multiplied manifold. Christian leaders in the State claim that the present Christian population in the State is somewhere in between 12 to 15 per cent. The Archbishop asserts that the population of the Catholics themselves has risen to 15 lakhs differing with the Minister who insists on his stand that total Christian population is only 12 lakh.

The State government has already sanctioned an amount of Rs 2 crore and at least 1000 Christian pilgrims will be benefited. Advisor to the Government and former South Central Railway General Manager Mr T Stanley Babu, will be a part of the Government team that has been appointed for finalizing the guidelines for Christian Patronage Programme.

It is indeed very unfortunate that in a State where thousands of people cannot even afford one single square meal a day, the Government headed by Dr Samuel Rajasekhara Reddy is misusing people's money to pay each Christian pilgrim out of State funds to visit Jerusalem. According to many nutritionists and economists, the amount to be paid to each Christian visitor would be enough to feed a poor child for two years. That is why perhaps the great Scottish Poet Robert Burns (1721--1784) came out with his immortal line of poetry: 'Man's inhumanity to man makes countless thousands mourn!'

That is why perhaps President Thomas Jefferson (1743--1826), by no means a communal and saffronised barbarian like myself, wrote in the 18th century: 'The Christian God is cruel, vindictive, capricious and unjust.' If I can suitably adapt those beautiful words to the Andhra Pradesh context today, the Christian Symbols politically promoted by the Sonia--Congress Government under Rajasekhara Reddy through its 'guided missile' of 'Christian Pilgrimage Programme' in Andhra Pradesh today, have to be viewed as no less cruel, vindictive, capricious and unjust by more than 650 million Hindus in Andhra Pradesh. I view this action of Dr Samuel Rajasekhara Reddy as 'AN ASSAULT ON THE SOUL OF THE NATION'. Every Hindu in Andhra Pradesh and indeed the whole of India, has a fundamental constitutional right in the so--called secular country like ours, to ask this question: 'Am I living in a Catholic country like Italy or Spain or Portugal where Roman Catholicism is the religion of the State and the people?'

Jammu is in flames today because the Jammu & Kashmir Government have cancelled the land allotted to the Amarnath Temple Pilgrims that was originally allotted to them by the Government. A civil war has been launched by the Hindus in Jammu to somehow pressurise the Jammu & Kashmir Government to re--allot the land to the Hindu Pilgrims going to Amarnath. The recent decision of Dr Samuel Rajashekhara Reddy's government will only lead to the creation of a new and more explosive Jammu & Kashmir situation in Andhra Pradesh in the immediate future.

The Sonia--Congress Party has given a death blow to the secular character of the Indian Constitution. The Constitution is a fundamental document. It is a document which defines the position and power of the three principal organs of the State -- the Executive, the Judiciary and the Legislature. It also defines the powers of the Executive and the powers of the Legislature as against the citizens, as has been done in the Chapter dealing with Fundamental Rights. In fact the purpose of a Constitution is not merely to create the organs of the State but to limit their authority, because, if no limitation is imposed upon the authority of organs, there will be complete tyranny and complete oppression. The Legislature may be free to frame any law; the Executive may be free to take any decision; and the Supreme Court may be free to give any interpretation of the law. That would result in irretrievable anarchy, chaos and confusion. That is precisely what is happening in India today, thanks to the wicked leaders like Sonia Gandhi, Manmohan Singh, Mulayam Singh Yadav, Lalu Yadav, Karunanidhi, Mayawati and Dr. Samuel Rajasekhara Reddy.

Sonia Gandhi and her party are destroying the secular nature of our Indian Constitution by giving a threatening and frightening signal and warning in a provocative manner to the peace--loving Hindus of India who have been decent and secular for centuries dating back to the dawn of History. Hindus of India to not have to learn there lessons in basic Secularism from either Sonia Gandhi or Dr Samuel Rajasekhara Reddy or Dr Karunanidhi. In my view nothing can destroy a Government more quickly than its failure to observe its own laws, or worse, its disregard of the Charter of its own existence i.e. Indian Constitution. In this context, I cannot help quoting the beautiful and sublime words of Honourable Justice Brandeis (Olmstead vs. United States, 1928): 'Our Government is the potent, the omnipresent teacher. For good or for ill, it teaches the whole people by its example.... If the Government becomes a law breaker, it breeds contempt for law; it invites every man to become a law unto himself; it invites anarchy.' By announcing these illegal concessions, Dr Samuel Rajasekhara Reddy has extended an open invitation to an unprecedented anarchy. This ought to give a Sound Sleep to our De jure Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh and de facto Prime Minister Sonia Gandhi!!.

(The writer is a retired IAS officer)
e--mail the writer at
vsundaram@newstodaynet.com

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